This Can't Be the Future of Gaming! #373

Foreign.

We're a weekly gaming podcast where our mission is simple to bring to light and discuss topics that have an impact on our gaming hobby and at the same time highlighting our diverse gamer community.

Also remaining dedicated to our origins.

Guardian Down Join me, Todd the Gator and my co host Kingsley Mack as we invite a rotating list of guest co hosts every week to join us at the Guardian Down Roundtable.

And now, let's get to it.

What's up Guardians?

Welcome to episode 373 of the Guardian Down Roundtable.

In our podcast, we talk about topics and news that impact our gaming hobby, all while keeping a focus on our community.

We go live every Thursday night, 9pm Eastern on my Todd the Gator YouTube and Twitch channels and our Discord Live stage.

We are a live video show, but we do produce an audio version available early or very, very late if you're on the west coast on Monday or Sunday night, depending on where you're from.

I really, really love the live shows, so I really appreciate everyone who's joined us tonight and feel free to jump in, give us your opinion on topics or news items we're talking about tonight.

That's why I do the live shows.

So when nobody else, you know, speaks up or wants to talk to, talk to us about it, then I'll just pre record this stuff.

But I like, I like live streaming.

It's just a lot of fun.

Keeps me on my toes too, that's for sure, with my adhd.

So let's first jump in and say hello to my co host from the great state of Utah, Mr. Kingsley Mack.

How you doing tonight Kingsley?

Hey, doing good.

We are also the podcast where we play audio clips over and over over again in the free show.

I know she's always, man, yeah, get that thing to stop.

But yeah, you just came back.

You just came back from your trip.

An Alaska cruise, man.

I mean, yeah, it's been a week now, but I still feel like it's been just.

Yeah, I hear you, man.

It's really weird when you get out of your rhythms and your normal routines and you, you just break off and go do something, go on a trip.

It's, it's refreshing and it's weird at the same time.

At least it is for me.

But we're glad you're watching.

Honestly, I love it.

Yeah, yeah.

I like to see, as we always talk, I'm more of that flexible personality and then even coming back, it doesn't really bother me that way either because it's not like I don't like routines at all.

But at the same time, like, I could be fine basically going on a trip forever and I'm with you.

Yeah, or, or, or a trip and then a week at home and then a trip and then a week at home.

Some people be like this too, jarring back and forth.

But like my brother, yeah, my brother's a builder and amongst many other things.

And he's always flying around everywhere developing houses and stuff.

So I don't know, man, I like my routine.

I like being right here at home.

And when we do go for a trip, you know, I'm happy about it.

It's a lot of fun.

So.

Well, let's, let's talk about what we got on the show tonight.

First, I've got a bunch of gaming news to mention.

There's been a lot in the news this week.

Before we get into our main topic of the week, by the way, if you have an article or a video or just an idea for a discussion about a topic around our gaming hobby, be sure to enter it in our Discord server.

And the channel is Articles for Roundtable.

It's.

That's the channel you want to put those in.

And I do see those.

In fact, we're going to be using one tonight that one of our community members did put in that channel.

So we'll get to that.

But next, Kingsley has a topic he wants to talk about concerning articles in general in YouTube and we'll let him explain later and what he means with that.

And then for our topic of the week, we just found out that Xbox cloud streaming for gaming has been seriously limited, with more time allotted per tier of membership.

But there is certainly no unlimited option at this time with Xbox.

So I asked the question, with the rising expense of gaming hardware, will that be our only option in the future?

And I'll talk about how I see things shaping up and Mike and I will talk about it.

So after which point we will ship into our ship.

No, we'll shift into our catch up segment with everyone and share highlights.

I want to hear about Kingsley's trip.

I'm sure he's tired of talking about it, but I haven't heard it yet.

So I want to hear how his trip went and what Alaska is like and all that cool stuff.

So we'll talk about that.

I have two, not one, but two movie reviews this week.

And then at the end of the show, if we have any time left, we'll answer any questions from our Discord.

If you do have a question you want to share with us or ask us go to our Discord server.

That's Discord GG guarding down a round table and there is a podcast questions channel in there.

You can put that in and we will see it and possibly ask it on the show live.

So I think we are good to go.

If everyone's ready, let's do it.

Let's roll.

Hi, this is fluffy fingers, MD, from potato thumbs Podcast, the podcast that you never knew existed.

I am here to tell you that you are listening to Guardian down the squarest coffee table around.

First thing I want to do is on the on the agenda, so to speak is a gaming article that was submitted through our Gaming Articles for Roundtable channel in our Discord and the article was submitted by Zombie Pops and It concerns Sony PlayStation.

Like Sony PlayStation doesn't have a enough going on right now.

This is from Tom's Hardware and Sony threatens to cut off customer support and pursue legal action over harassment as backlash to PlayStation's physical disk phaseout intensifies.

The company to move forward with no disk despite several lawsuits going on right now and I mentioned that last week that they're getting sued for hundreds of millions of dollars.

Sony Japan has officially implemented a new customer harassment policy to address ongoing customer backlash following the company's controversial announcement of phasing out physical PlayStation game disc by January of 2028.

An official publication on September 1, the company outlined prohibited customer behaviors to protect the dignity and safety of its employees and and threatened to suspend customer service if the behaviors continued.

Quote the dignity and safety of our employees must not be threatened by customer harassment, such as words or demands from customers that exceed what is considered reasonable according to social norms.

Unquote, the publication read, quote, if any behavior constituting customer harassment is confirmed, we may restrict or suspend customer service in order to protect the safety of of our employees.

Some of the examples this is great.

Some of the examples of customer harassment detailed in the publication include, quote, persistent, persistent and repeated or prolonged demands excessive or unreasonable demands for compensation, abusive language, threats, slander and other similar behaviors Requests unrelated to products or services Intimidating attitude.

Hey Kingsley, you got an attitude man.

No.

No customer service for you.

Discriminatory or sexual conduct?

Well, that goes without saying.

And attacks and demands against individual employees.

The company also listed, quote, forcing someone to prostrate themselves.

Use your imagination.

Visiting company grounds without permission.

Holy crap, that's happened.

And excessively asking for apologies as customer harassment.

Expressing willingness to use legal force if necessary.

Quote we take a firm stance against such actions and aim to build healthy and sustainable relationships while respecting both the customers and employees.

It said, if we deem it necessary, we will cooperate with the police, lawyers, etc.

And consider taking legal action, including legal measures and criminal proceeding proceedings.

The new policies appear to be in response to the intense backlash over Sony's decision to end physical disc production by 2028.

The decision was met with immediate widespread backlash from the gaming community, which argued, among other things, that ending physical disk was equivalent to eliminating true ownership.

Critics also argued that digital purchase were rentals and placed too much power in the company's hands, which should restrict at.

AT should restrict access to at will.

Just six days after the July 1 announcement, a Change.org petition to stop the move has amassed 200,000 signatures and is now approaching 400,000.

Kingsley, what do you think about this, man?

I mean, Sony's feeling the heat right now, man.

Even down in the customer service level, it seems.

No, yeah, no, actually this isn't an issue because of what we think the issue is.

It is absurd because.

But it's not because of what the policy is, and I'll get into more details in a second.

It's the fact that this wasn't already a policy and they have to talk about it.

And this is a very bad timing.

All these things seem reasonable to me.

They used words like extreme and persistent, right?

All companies should or do have a policy like that.

If people are being crazy and being extreme or persistent, you have the right to not give them customer service and to hang up on them or even if they're being too mean, putting them to law enforcement.

And we've said this all, all along, don't, don't go after the Bungie developers because, you know, because of some decisions that corporate made or whatever.

Well, it's the same thing with Sony.

No matter all the bad decisions that, yes, they have been making.

I think this sounds perfectly reasonable.

It's just how it was presented and the fact that it's a quote, new policy, that seems kind of stupid in my opinion.

You know what?

This should have already had this as a policy.

You know what this reminds me of, Kingsley?

This brings me back to my early days of my pest control business.

I remember one time I was treating a yard and the neighbor next door stood right at the property line with his arms folded and was just looking sternly at me.

And as I got closer to him, I looked over and I said, sir, can I help you with something?

He goes, yeah, what are you going to do about this dollar weed?

It's getting into my yard.

I immediately just turned my spray back on and just kept on walking.

I have no obligation to answer you, sir.

None whatsoever.

I don't work for you.

You get your own damn dollar weed out of your yard.

I did just brought that back.

Just stupid things, you know that people.

I mean, I understand people are upset, but don't take it out on employees.

I mean, come on, really.

But yeah.

So unless we start hearing like people have recorded so that you can prove it, like interactions with customer service where they just like barely hint to something or start talking about something and then the customer service people are like.

And then hanging up on them.

Yeah, now of course, then, yeah, they.

Sony's feet should be put to the fire.

But again, all the words they're using, extreme persistent things like that.

This seems reasonable to me, the policy.

And yes, that's.

I'm not excusing their behavior of everything that's led up to this, but the policy alone does not seem bad.

It's just again, how it came out, the timing when it came out.

And saying it's a new policy is just so laughable right now.

Amazing.

Taco King, what do you think prostrate means?

Todd, that chuckle indicates.

I know, right?

You guys will laugh.

It.

It doesn't even have to mean anything crazy.

It doesn't.

But I'm.

I'm.

Something did come to mind, but I don't think I can say it on YouTube.

I hope you get demonetized.

But.

But no, it's.

Yeah, I mean, that's.

I totally agree.

Totally agree.

So.

So it means lying flat on the ground, often face down, or being completely overcome by exhaustion, illness or grief.

So all it has to mean is you're overcome by exhaustion.

There you go.

Question asked, question answer.

There you go.

Amazing.

Falco gang.

Oh, speaking of Sony, by the way, Kingsley, did you know that the Sony PlayStation's intent on eliminating physical disc games by 2028?

It seems that we all took this a little too seriously.

Kingsley, as they put out a statement this past week, I wanted to read this.

This was.

I don't know.

I don't know if they're backing down from this decision or what, but leave it to Sony to say something that sounds like they're walking it back, but at the same time they're not.

The.

This is level up and it is by Victor Roses.

And he says Sony to attempt more orders for physical games after 2028 executive clarifies production.

Misunderstanding.

It's a misunderstanding, Kingsley, regarding the Austrian Factory.

This will apply to all games released before the year.

So there will be a Supply of physical copies for a while the anticipated decline of the physical media in the video game industry may not be as drastic as once feared, at least for the next several years.

Although Sony has designated 2028 as the cutoff year for producing physical copies of the new PlayStation titles, this doesn't mean games released before that date will be ignored.

A recent report has shed light on a critical misinterpretation regarding disc production figures at Sony's manufacturing facility in Falgau, Austria, and the company's willingness to fulfill orders for physical copies of all games that launched prior to 2028.

In a statement reported by Brian Crescente of Game.

A significant error regarding physical disk production that surfaced in July was addressed.

Early reports had suggested that the production of CDs, DVDs and Blu Rays and other optical media at the Austrian plant, the Sony Digital Audio disc production Sony DADC, would plummet by 90%.

Sony DADC chief Detmer Tanzer, however, clarified this misunderstanding.

Quote, to clarify and avoid any misleading information in that statement, Detmer anticipated an overall product volume decline of only 10%, not a decline down to 10%.

This means that disk production will only be reduced by 10% and the factory will operate at 90% of its capacity.

So.

And there's they.

They go on and on about some other stuff here, but I just thought that was kind of funny.

I mean, are they walking it back?

Are they.

I understand the clarification, but I wonder if this is because of studios really turning.

Turning their back toward.

I'm thinking of.

I'm thinking of.

I'm thinking of Project CD Projekt Red with their statements that they will be offering physical games past 2028.

When I think it's what's coming out of.

No, no, that's not that either.

But like they said, it's going to be stuff up until then, like this isn't walking anything back.

They'll still have the 2028 deadline for like the PlayStation.

It probably won't come with a drive, although you can.

Maybe they're going to have an option where you can add on a third party drive.

Right, right.

And then maybe if studios want to have a disk, but also a lot of these people that are making, quote, physical copies coming up.

All that really means is a box with some.

Yeah, well, not just a code.

They want to do other things to make people feel good.

Maybe like little collectibles or things.

That's what my son was talking about last week.

It's so ironic.

He says they went there.

I don't.

But I don't see it as a walk back at all.

Again, this is one of these situations where they're probably like, yeah, again we, I don't, I never thought the decision was that controversial, but I understand a lot of people don't like it.

But like, but you know me, I like to squash misinformation and just like them, they have the right to say like, well, even though that's the plan, it doesn't mean in the meantime, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

So you know, people just, they hear one thing and they assume everything else goes with it.

When it's good to be fair and.

Give the full story, I get that going.

I'm just going to go on from news article to news article here.

The next news item.

It seems that GameStop is making bank these days and it's not from game sales.

This is from comic book, comicbook.com they said GameStop is.

GameStop is surprisingly making more money than ever.

But it's not because of video game sales in recent years.

GameStop, you know, we know they went through a tumultuous time and then of course you, I even saw the movie about the, the meme stocks where they were trying to, the guys that were shorting the companies, the big, the bigwigs that were trying to short the company, they wanted to fight against them and make them lose all this money.

And it did.

It worked.

And GameStop's still out there now.

I thought it'd be gone by now, but as of today, GameStop has released its financial report and surprisingly it ended up breaking records for the company.

In the second quarter of its current fiscal years, GameStop GameStop brought in a little over $160 million in operating income.

This represents the second highest operating income that the company has brought in within a single quarter in history, showing that the game, the gaming storefront is on the upswing.

Despite having the game in its name though, what's driving, you know, so much money at GameStop the moment isn't video games.

Instead, it's collectibles, just like what you talked about.

Kingsley.

If 45% of GameStop's money for the quarter was generated in this category, this means that various toys, statues, trading cards and other products that have filled GameStop stores over the past few years have started to become its primary business.

By comparison, video games are now GameStop's second largest earner.

But sales in this front have started to decrease drastically compared to quarter two of the previous fiscal year.

And saw the launch of the Switch 2, earnings had fallen well over by well over $200 million.

To some degree, this isn't a shock, especially in the wake of heightened console sales.

Still, it puts into perspective how much GameStop's business is moving away from the thing that put it on the map.

So this just shows you haven't been to a GameStop in a long time.

I already known this for a while.

Really I've never been.

I haven't been one in a long time.

If you want to get like a video game based chess board or a puzzle thing or collectibles or whatever, the best places to go is GameStop.

Better than best Buy, Better than these other places.

Sometimes Best Buy will have a little more selection, but GameStop is the place to go.

Several years ago when the wife and I wanted to get the destiny chess board, GameStop is the place to go.

I go in there for video games.

We were going for, you know, of course you can get a lot of this stuff online but if you want to get it fast.

And also I've noticed around in my town that there's not tons of gamestops but they haven't been closing.

There's still.

And even when we drive past them there's generally people in the parking lot.

So I, yeah, I've already kind of known this.

It is the place to go for collectibles and board games and video or video games sure too.

But like mostly the, the physical stuff these days and yeah probably all the cards and stuff like, like Taco King says even without caring about that stuff, I could almost guarantee if I wanted to get Pokemon and magic stuff like that's another place now the local shops probably don't like that because we have some of those too that I'd probably go to them first just to give them money support your.

Yeah, but, but GameStop is definitely a good option also.

You know I was talking about quick, quick flips.

It was a company in Lexington, Kentucky.

A guy took his Christmas money and started a business and it's what would seem be a declining business.

And he's killing it too, man.

He did $5 million last year.

So it's 33 employees.

Dude.

That's.

That's killing it to me.

That's a lot of payroll.

But I mean he, he promotes himself on YouTube.

You get that's where he gets his audience and probably some of his traffic.

But yeah, it's a crazy story, man.

It's crazy.

I mean you should stop in one.

I need to do that.

I need to do that.

I guess usually the bo smell just drives me away.

Every time I even walk past the door it's like, oh crap dude.

Bathe.

Please bathe.

Wow, what a prejudice thing.

Such a hater.

I know.

I'm such.

I'm such a boomer for saying that.

I know.

Okay, let's move on, shall we?

The next story in this in this story, Jeff Keighley, you know the Game Awards and the PS architect Mark Cerny are now paying new game developers and this they will start by giving $2 million to young game designers each year.

The two game industry icons paying it forward.

The host, the creator of the game awards, Geoff Keighley and is teaming up with game designer PlayStation 5 architect Mark Cerny to invest millions in the next generation of game developers.

A joint philanthropic initiative called Nova Games foundation will give millions away to university graduates to help bring them and their games to the market.

I've always wanted to give back, but given my role in the industry, I've never felt it appropriate to commercially invest in games, keeley said to the Game file which is this is what this article is.

This is Kotaku actually.

I've never owned stock in a company or taken financial stake in a game.

Nova is philanthropy.

We aren't trading equity or looking to recoup the grants we return.

We're hopefully for its creative, helpful new voices making games find their footing.

Here's how it'll work.

Nova Games foundation is partnering with 13 university programs around the world, including New York University, the University of Southern California, Appertay University in Scotland, CNAM Ngim in France, TH cone in Germany and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia.

Grants will be awarded to 20 students each year.

They start at 100 grand, but can go up to 500 grand for projects that look exceptionally promising.

With the need to develop milestone requirements in order to unlock the full funds, the foundation is now accepting applicants from the recent graduating class of 2026 and upcoming class of 2027.

QUOTE Mark and I have each made multimillion dollar donations to establish foundation and we intend to keep contributing, keely added.

We hope others will join us.

I don't know, I just thought that was a really feel good.

I don't want to be doom and gloom on all these news stories all the time.

I figured it was a nice little beacon of light.

I just wanted to mention there I don't know if you had any comments on that at all but no that that is cool.

I had not known about this one and it is really cool to hear that so have much else to say.

But yeah that Sounds awesome.

Well, I'm going right back to doom and gloom.

In this recent report from European developers, they say they're more worried that AI will force them to work faster than they're worried about it taking their jobs.

This is from Gamesindustry Biz and he said that 61% of European game developers are concerned that generative AI will place them in under pressure to work faster and produce more.

But only 35 of them percent that think that AI might, you know, cause them to lose their job or reduce demand for their role.

These findings are based on the report Talent Signals Reshaping the Games Industry by Values Value founder and in Game Job co founder Tanja Lokanova.

The report draws on the Data from the 10th Big Game Industry Employment Survey.

A condensed preliminary report is available here.

With the report to be published in November 2026.

Just over half the respondents are concerned that generated AI could reduce work quality and 46% believe AI makes it harder to access actual skills.

However, less than a third, 29% had ethical concerns about AI, while 12% reported they didn't care.

The report found that AI changed how 78% of the respondents work.

Of these, 33% experienced significant change and 45% some change.

Only 22% reported no change.

The report also found that 35% of the company founders have decided not to hire someone because AI tools could perform the work.

Meanwhile, 48% of founders said their company is currently operating at a loss and 60% are intentionally keeping their teams small.

Last month, Gamescom dev released its annual speaker survey results which found that 83% of respondents expected generative AI to impact team structure or productivity.

I'm actually going to talk about that article in the, in the coming up here, so I won't go too much further on that.

So, so yeah, they're, they're.

The European side at least is worried about AI.

What speeding up, you know, medial menial practices or something where they have to act on it quicker.

Trying to, I'm trying to, trying to understand.

You can't understand what the concern would be.

Yeah, where's coming from here?

I don't know if this is all the case yet because it's still too early to say.

But.

So if you have certain things that can be done, not like everything but like, let's say, because a lot of the stuff with the AI is it.

It definitely takes more time at first because you have to double check things and there's still a lot that's that, that, that it gets wrong.

Right.

But once you get certain things hooked in.

Like you always want to just create the spreadsheet a certain way or you want it to do your base coding a certain way or something like that.

Well, that start going faster, obviously.

Right.

Because it can do it really fast almost instantly.

Right.

But no matter if you think you're a good manager or not, you start seeing certain tasks going faster from the people underneath you.

Right.

But then when you don't see all those tasks going faster, you start to get upset.

You're like, well, you're going faster.

This and this and this.

Why can't you go faster on this and this?

And the employee's saying, well, that's because these other things we can't do through AI yet.

Or they're like, all I'm hearing is excuses.

Just start working faster.

You know, it seems obvious to me this could be a loop that people get into.

Not saying it's going to happen for sure or it's the only reason, but I can think of lots of reasons why people would be concerned.

That's kind of where I went.

I kind of went there that, you know, some of the processes that take more human interaction are getting done quicker and it would create a bottleneck.

That's kind of where I was thinking on that.

So, yeah, I see what you're saying there.

Okay, well, maybe I guess we're just figuring out where it's going to.

Where it's going to fit in these gaming things.

Yeah.

Did you see, I don't know if it was mentioned on the show last couple weeks or not, But I see two different numbers between 70%, 80%, but basically, let's go with the lower number.

This isn't even a political thing because it's across the aisle.

But 70% of people do not want more AI data.

Data centers being built.

I can understand that.

Yeah.

I mean, they use 70%, but dude, they use.

There's got to see.

This is what I meant.

I've mentioned this in previous shows.

I think there, there just needs to be another way to produce this.

This power.

I don't know.

I don't know what the answer is, but I know if anything that billionaires can.

There's lots of reasons.

Not.

It's not the only reason.

Because if that was the only reason, it may.

I'm not going to get too political, but it may not be across the aisle.

But like there's lots of reasons why people don't want AI data center spill and mostly that means near them.

But yeah, that is one reason.

Of course, that is a big reason.

That's why the number's so high.

Yeah, I've heard everything from.

They use so much more water to cool everything and then I've heard, I've heard weird things about how they're using water for something else and it's just a con.

I don't know what to believe, man.

When it comes to the data centers, I don't have one near me, but.

And again, there's more reasons people don't want them other than just environmental.

There's more reasons why people don't want.

It's like the power lines, power stations being too close to your house and stuff.

People causing people cancer and stuff.

You just don't know, man.

No, no, people just don't even want them sometimes too because they don't want it to grow that fast.

There's lots of reasons why people don't want them.

Like environmental power, they don't want it to grow fast.

Like there's lots of reasons why people don't want to near them.

And yeah, I won't get into all that right now, but yeah, okay, that makes sense.

I mean, that makes sense.

Speaking of that survey at Gamescom, Tim Sweeney has another opinion.

He says gaming's in freefall and AI hardware demand is pouring fuel on the fire.

This is from new game network Epic Games founder CEO Tim Sweeney has articulated with Many of us have been fearing about with the games industry.

It's going through its worst period since the 1983 crash.

Holy crap.

I remember that time explaining to Edge magazine that AI infrastructure investment is draining the component supply chains that gaming needs to survive.

I mean, we've been talking about that for God, weeks and maybe a month now.

As reported by Kotaku, the interview features Sweeney alongside former PlayStation executive Sean Layden, Tencent's Amir Satvat and playable Word CEO Ralph Costler.

Coster, Excuse me.

As contributors to what Edge is framing as the industry wide reckoning it calls.

According to the interview, AI companies are outbidding the games industry for RAM and storage components.

We've already known that.

And the supply gap will not be closing anytime soon.

There's an unprecedented wave of investment in building the AI data systems.

Yes, we know about that.

We're getting the short end of the stick and prices of RAM and storage are quadrupling and not necessarily stopping there.

I mean this is all everything we've already known.

But there were some comments in here I wanted to mention.

This was mentioned by Sean Layden.

He says his solution is for companies to make games that cost less to make and only need modest commercial returns to be a considerable success.

It sounds remarkably simple, but whether the industry responds positively is a different story.

The current fixation on games that only can survive at massive scale is, in Leighton's view, part of what made the crisis inevitable.

The longer solution, Sweeney points to building for more manufacturing capacity to ease the component shortage could take years to materialize.

And I've already mentioned from an article that I read couple shows ago, that I don't see the chip manufacturers building bigger plants, because right now, I won it.

By the time they do it, everything might be changing, and then they'll have this excess supply and it'll drive the sales down of all these chips, which I wouldn't be adverse to.

But I think the biggest thing is I don't think they trust that this AI buying spree is going to last forever.

I think.

I think they see the bubble at least going to pop sooner or later, and they don't want to be caught holding a bunch of extra capital, you know, developments and production.

I don't know, man.

I. I think we're going to be so interesting.

I want to talk about that point, too.

We're going to be so dependent on chips.

I mean, it's only getting worse.

Every car has a chip in it.

Everything has a chip in it.

And I mean, we found out that during the.

During the chip shortages, you know, about car sales going way up and how used cars went up in price, too, because people can't.

The production wasn't there because they didn't have the chips to put in the damn cars.

So, I mean, okay, what do you.

What.

Go ahead, man.

What do you.

What do you.

What's your fit here?

So now I go back and talk about the other point that wasn't even about the article at all, making smaller games.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

No, no, no.

I do want to talk about that, too.

But no, about the thing you're talking about, about the factories.

Now, first of all, yes, there are some factories being built.

So it's not true that they're not, but they do take a long time.

There's one in Idaho that still has another year or two to be spun up, and I think there's another one being built.

Okay, good news.

Let's just say in theory that your line of thought, like, they don't want to build more because they think the bubble's going to pop.

Well, that's the left and the right hand not talking to each other because investors sure don't think the bubble's going to pop.

So who are they listening to?

And they should be listening to the investors.

So I don't know that they're necessarily thinking the bubble's going to pop.

Well, the other, the other, the investors still wouldn't be going for it.

And you even said, the article said it's unprecedented growth, so people are still going for it right now.

And the other reason they said that these chip companies maybe don't want to expand is the fact that they're killing it at record high prices right now.

They're fat cats right now.

Why would they worry about selling more when they're maxing out the production just about all the time?

It's more than just price.

It's also, you got to have it pumped out quickly enough.

Right now the issue is price and not coming out quick enough.

So they do need more factories either way.

And even if they keep their prices.

High, I'm in agreement.

So.

Yeah, yeah.

So I think, I do personally think, though, like, the fact that it goes back to what I was last saying, people not wanting the AI data centers as much.

And also, if you think about it, our current AI load right now seems to be working pretty okay.

Like, even if they slow down on building new AI data centers, would we really be that bad off?

Right.

That's what I said.

Everything needs a chip.

It's only going to get worse, right?

Yeah.

And of course, I've expressed on the show multiple times how I'm pissed that this all happened with the chips, because chips should be a commodity.

The type of world we live in, it's almost like water or food or things like that.

Obviously I'm stretching that term a little bit, but everything needs it.

Chips need to be a commodity.

So I think, like, when, when, like, at least the big fat cats are even starting to realize we can't get chips fast enough and stuff, that's where things will slow down some.

And then the fact too that, yeah, a lot of companies are kind of.

I think we're kind of at the point where most companies that are going to buy into AI have.

We only have maybe like another three to six months of, like, companies that are still on the line, considering it or not.

So if, let's say we got another three to six months, I don't think it's going to grow any more than that because all the companies that are already kind of deciding and we've already heard like Copilot and Microsoft and other companies saying, oh, we're not even making as much as we thought with the AI stuff So I do think now saying bubble will pop.

That can mean anything from just like a small drop to a big drop.

But I do think things will slow down at least.

I don't know if it'll Kingsley do a big drop.

So have any AI companies made a profit yet?

This reminds me of the.

Of the dot com boom.

It really does, man.

Doesn't this sound familiar?

Okay.

All right.

I mean, I know I pay my 20 bucks a month to Gemini, but I can't.

I can't think that.

I've heard from a lot of other tech people that for 20 bucks a month, that's a steal.

Use it to death.

Use it as much as you can for that 20 bucks, because it will not be that price forever.

They'll have to raise prices.

No, of course it won't.

But also, the 20 buck a month one isn't enough for, like, heavier usage.

You gotta go to the $100 a month.

Yeah, it's.

Yeah.

And a lot of businesses do that.

Oh, yeah.

If you're gonna scale it, especially if you're gonna scale it to employees to be able to use.

I'm just using it for personal use.

It makes sense to use just the pro account.

But, yeah, I mean, it's.

It's funny.

My wife is.

We're making T shirts designed for Guardian Down Cast right now, and I'll announce it once we get something made.

It's through our new threadless store, which has fantastic quality.

And my wife, just as a whim, because my daughter is an artist and she's been very much impacted by AI art systems, my wife says, give me your Gemini program.

I want to make an image real quick for your podcast.

And she literally just said four or five sentences.

And I was kind of shocked how well it made a T shirt design.

I was kind of shocked.

She was laughing at it like, it was terrible.

I'm like, I don't know, man.

It doesn't look too terrible to me.

It looks pretty good.

I've seen some of Heyoka's work, man.

Heyoka can make some fantastic images.

But.

But that's just the thing.

You got a.

Now we're going to another point.

Sorry, sorry.

You got a program that's making art from.

From nothing.

I can draw stick figures.

I cannot make art.

And here's the thing.

Most of it is pretty terrible.

I've noticed.

And this is coming from.

From a family that does professional graphic design and stuff.

Yeah.

You know, my wife sent it as a joke to my daughter, and she just rolling her eyes, but she was working on some T shirts designs and we were trying to.

That's a whole, that's a whole nother point.

I think most people agree for professional work, generative AI is not going to be.

People do not want that for like professional graphic design.

It's just not going to happen.

I mean it's just because either people will notice the issues or for ethical reasons they'd rather a human do it than, than anyways.

But now let's go.

Now that you added on those extra points, I want to go back to the article.

Okay, sorry.

And talk about.

I'm kind of mad with what he said make more basic games because look, isn't the idea.

This is what the AI lovers keep promoting.

We're going to be able to make really awesome games.

That was Sean legislation.

Well, don't tell us to have more basic games then.

I don't want basic games because AI and the chip shortage is making issues.

That's their fault, not my fault.

And I don't want to be going back to more basic games.

I like crazy expensive games.

I'm kind of mad with that.

I got a machine that does 6400 basic games.

I got plenty of basic games right back here.

I can just press a button and they'll pop up.

Yeah, I mean, I'm with you, man.

I want the gaming industry to keep going forward in tech and you know, realistic photorealistic images and you know, all kinds of stuff.

You know, I'm, I'm all for that, man.

So I mean, I get it, man.

I, I've been, so far I've been agreeing with you just about on everything you've, you've stated here.

I mean, I get what he's saying because in the meantime people don't have money, so just do whatever you can.

But that is not a good answer though.

It's like it's the obvious answer, but saying it out loud.

It's the obvious answer in the meantime.

But saying it out loud is annoying because it just again pushes the fact that AI has caused this problem.

Yeah, and, and even the lovers of AI, their thing isn't coming true yet where it's supposed to fix all these issues and make amazing games like in two weeks.

I know that's extreme, but you know, that's what some people would claim.

Sweeney Swinney actually agrees with you.

He says he seems sure that manufacturers will eventually expand to capacity to meet demand.

But eventually is doing a lot of work in that sentence.

Let's say supply constrained hardware costs continue to for a few more years.

This will heap more pressure on developers and publishers with the logical conclusion being that customers will will be asked to pay more for games and the consoles and the and the edges features also draws on Laden's and Coster's analysis offer portray an industry that sees the problem clearly and has credible ideas about structural reform.

Getting from diagnosis to recovery is the part that nobody has a clean answer to yet.

So I mean Sweeney at least agrees with you that they're eventually going to increase the but when you know how.

How long is it going to be too late by the time.

Oh yeah, it takes a long time.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Any other comments on that?

Nope.

Okay, we'll keep moving.

Hello Guardians, this is Notorious one and you're listening to Guardian Down Round T Foreign.

Let's see, next story is.

Oh, I had to add this one.

I'm sorry Kingsley, I just threw this on you, man.

I didn't tell you I was going to talk about this tonight, but I just found this out tonight.

PlayStation Network just tweeted out an update from PlayStation Studios.

After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to step away from from collaborating with Kojima Productions on its project Fizzant.

We continue to have great admiration for Hideo Kojima's vision for the game.

Our relationship remains strong after three decades of industry leading, genre defining, cooperative creative cooperation and we look forward to continued close collaboration with Hideo Hideo Kojima and his award winning independent studio in the future.

And it's funny how this all played out, but it seems like PlayStation's the villain now and Xbox is the hero because Xbox stepped in and swoops in to partner with Kojima Stealth game after PlayStation just officially canceled it.

So it's just crazy, man.

I don't know who was running PlayStation right now.

My spinful theory is getting thinner and thinner by the hour right now because I, I'm assuming that place that Sony PlayStation has intelligent people working there.

What the hell?

No, see this.

That's the problem is people like you were not even understanding six months ago that PlayStation and Sony's already in a bad spot.

And you keep hoping no they're not.

And then another bad news article comes out.

No, they're not.

And another bad news article comes out.

No they're not.

How many bad news articles will it.

Take before I'm a fanboy, I'm trying to defend my company, but damn man.

Deadpool says yeah, I was disappointed when I heard that about PlayStation.

Yeah, here's the thing man, it is so weird to tie Kojima Games now with Xbox.

Xbox just got a huge lift in stock price.

I guarantee their stock went up when they found out about this.

Because this is a huge lift for, I mean, my God, partnering with Kojima.

This guy's a visionary, man.

His stuff.

I mean I didn't play his FedEx game.

I didn't play that game because it really wasn't the style of game I liked.

But dude, this fizznt.

I saw the preview at the Game the Game awards.

I think it was last year at the end of last year.

Holy crap.

Man, this game was intense looking.

But maybe is PlayStation.

Just want to get out of the gaming industry.

I don't know what's going on.

Dude, I'm shaking my head right now.

Bad decisions doesn't mean you're trying to sneakily get out.

It just means you're being stupid temporarily.

I boy, they're going to regret that decision.

Kojima is just a maestro of gaming.

Well, I see this as potentially just more of what we already kind of know.

Like it was like, remember when I was saying like.

Well yeah, they're, they're giving up on the live service games early, but the single player games, they give too much leeway.

Well, I think they're realizing that they, they're not even giving this the, the single player games as much leeway now because look, it's obviously they're probably feeling issues with needing to make cuts too and they're making all these stupid decisions, but they're at least being, they're being strong about it.

There is a type of culture there that, that it's like there's, there's no shame.

It's like this is what we're going to do.

This is the right decision.

You know, it's not like, oh, what do you all think?

Right?

No, no, we, it's like we know it's the right decision.

Even though maybe we think it's a stupid decision.

You know, maybe they, they got some numbers that we don't have, aren't privy to.

I don't know.

But I don't know.

I mean, I know I'm sure his games cost a fortune.

Probably some of the highest.

Yeah, I see.

And what I'm really trying to say is that I see this happening maybe with even more single player studios.

Like there's the famous example of Santa Monica studios and they have like unlimited leeway and they can work on games for like eight years and use all this money.

Well, maybe they're going to start over, you know.

Yeah.

For the single Player games too.

Yeah.

What's this mean for Interstellar?

I mean, that's a big.

Another big game from Guerrilla Games coming out soon.

That's a huge IP coming out, so we'll have to see, I guess.

I hope that isn't cut because that looked pretty good.

I like that preview.

It looked really cool.

It kind of had a GTA vibe, you know.

You know, had a lot of branding and stuff in it, but we'll have to see.

This next article just made me laugh because it's funny.

I just got a new client today who used to be a Miami police officer for like 29 years and she, she.

She retired, moved down here to Florida officials.

The mayor of Miami basically wants to turn Miami into Vice City for GTA 6.

Police disagree.

Miami inspired the fictional city Vice City, but Miami Dade Sheriff is against the idea of marketing the game in real life.

Some officials in Miami Dade county dream of turning Miami into Vice City for the release of the Grand Theft Auto 6, but law enforcement isn't a fan of the idea.

No shit.

GTA 6 takes place in a fictional Miami inspired Vice City and county officials are trying to spin it into a marketing opportunity for the destination, according to the News outlet.

On June 29, they reportedly submitted a pitch deck to Rockstar, the makers of gta, which the Miami M attained through public records request.

The slides include ideas such as transforming Miami International Airport and parts of the Metro over system with Vice City branding to creating a Vice City radio lab in downtown Miami's main library.

Carlos Suarez, a spokesperson for Miami Dade Mayor Daniela Levine Cava confirmed to the Miami that the mayor's office has had conversations with Rockstar about potential opportunities, but nothing has been formalized or agreed upon.

And I was talking to my new client today and she goes, oh yeah, I know this, I know this mayor.

So apparently she's a little eccentric.

It is Miami.

Of course, anything goes in Miami.

It's like the, it's like the Las Vegas of Florida.

It really is.

It's not like other people in this country haven't changed names.

I'll leave it at that.

Yeah, it's.

Yeah, you're not wrong, man.

But I just thought I'd get a chuckle of that because I mean, dude, Florida's already so plasticky with all the theme parks and stuff.

I don't know, man.

It's nice to see some natural areas, but in Florida.

But yeah, it's very commercialized here, especially in Orlando.

If you come here as a tourist, you'll see it's just sprawls everywhere.

All the attractions are all over the place.

But yeah, I just thought I'd mention that.

It's just across my feed.

I'm like, oh, I gotta talk about this.

Oh, one of my.

I talked about how the, the western studios are struggling and how the eastern studios were killing it.

There was a article from Eurogamer and it said, as Western games industry struggles, China's games industry is booming.

A new report shows as the Western video games industry continues to struggle, the Chinese appears to be booming, revealing a worth of more than $50 billion in 2025, more than five times the industry in the UK.

Aniko Partners, a video game research company, released a report breaking down the staggering growth of the Chinese video game industry.

It found in 2025 the Chinese market generated around $51.8 billion in revenue.

Compare this with British video game market through 8.6 billion in 2025.

The country's national video game association and trade body.

China's 2025 performance is astounding figure one that marks continued rise in prominence for the nation's video game industry.

I mean, I talked about how they're actually granting their, their citizens digital rights, so you actually own digital property now that you can even pass on to your kids.

But they said from the same report from NICO Partners some additional insight into how Chinese gamers were interacting with the media.

And it states that 46.5% were engaged with esports to some degree.

With that figure expected to rise to 51% in 2026.

80% Of gamers have played a mini game with 20% of total spending coming from these mini games.

These are defined as games you don't have to download.

Think browser games and the like.

As for the important trends that may impact the future of China, NICO Partners believes that generative AI's integration into game development is one factor.

Other factors include growth in the niche and underserved genres, increasing out of app monetization.

The rising consumer spending both domestically and internationally will be key.

So too will a quote, more favorable regulatory environment for game developers, which Niko Partners believes will allow international game companies to access the China market via platforms like Steam.

So yeah, there we go.

Just kind of backing up my story.

I mentioned many episodes ago that they're giving their developers raises in Japan and South Korea and China and the west just continue to be in free fall.

So I'm not trying to be a doomer, but.

And it's, and it's not just because of AI stuff.

It was already, they were already doing things from Before.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I don't have a problem with this at all.

I mean, I mean, I want to.

I, I don't want to see like companies go away in the US that are making games.

But there's a lot of great.

We already play.

I, I know people would maybe play games.

They'd be surprised how much are made in other countries and who cares if it's.

Yeah, UK versus China or whatever.

The only thing that I could see having issues coming up is just political issues, like, are we, are we sure these games are safe?

And things like that, you know, Like, I worry.

I don't, I don't know if I'm saying I personally worry, but I worry like, how will we know the truth if there.

You know, like some people may think like everyone's hacking into us where they may.

That may not be the case.

The opposite where, like no one's thinking that where, where it is happening.

So I hope we can find the right line and not be too dramatic one way or the other.

You know, I buy these little electronic devices that are mostly all made in China that sold on Amazon these days, and you get into their app and they want to access all your photos and stuff.

I'm like, no, why do you need to access all my photos?

That's not just Chinese devices.

The American devices do that too.

I guarantee it.

Yeah, it's crazy.

Yeah.

You don't need to see my photos.

I mean, I'm thinking that's going to be fed to AI somewhere down the road.

Well, it's, it's sometimes not even as dramatic as you might think.

It's not like they want to see your photos.

They just want you to have allow access because then you can share things easier and then you're using the system more.

It's all money and marketing and stuff.

And of course they want you to be on the.

Yeah, maybe some companies do are trying to look at your photos, but it's not even.

See, that's the thing people we need.

I'm always about what the true story is.

It's not always extreme every single time and.

But it's all about money.

Of course.

In every situation.

Gotcha.

Deadpool 1 Merc says, I heard they might turn Kissimmee local airport into a national, into an international airport.

I wouldn't doubt it, man, because everybody's flying into Orlando.

For those that don't live in Florida, Kissimmee.

I'm sorry.

Yes.

Thank you.

Kissimmee is near the attractions.

It's probably south of it's.

Actually pretty parallel with the Orlando International Airport.

It's just further west.

But yeah, there's a main Road called I92 or 192 that you can go to Disney from that road.

It's kind of the back way into Disney and all these properties versus going through i4 and International Drive and through the airport, through the B line and all those areas.

But I wouldn't doubt it, man.

I'm telling you, that area is growing so fast right now.

Everybody's either moving down here and wanting to live near Disney World or they want to come to Disney World.

And I don't know if you check lately, but it's a small fortune to go to a theme park in Florida now.

It's crazy, man.

I mean, I could see, I could see much better vacations.

I could go to probably New Zealand for some of the prices they charge for these families.

Well, also, I have to give my little talking point real quick too.

Oh, that's right.

Yeah, that's right.

From being a Disney fan and working at Disneyland, I've always told people no shade against Disney World, but Disneyland is always.

You can always get as good enough of experience for way less money at Disneyland.

You don't need to spend a week, week and a half and $5,000 when you can do it in three days and $1,000 at Disneyland.

Right, right.

Amazing.

Taco King Rockstar doesn't need to collab with anybody.

Their games print money.

And I totally agree, man.

They're going to make like a million dollars a day on just dlc.

Okay, we're going way back on comments.

Sorry on that one.

Yeah, we know that.

But also that's not the main point.

I think the point is the city of Miami is trying to get money.

They're trying to cash in.

If they, if they remarket Vice City, then they'll, they'll get, they will potentially get more people visiting.

Haha, this is funny.

Or, or spending money with just like little Vice City booths that they buy things and stuff like that.

I just don't think that's the game to commercialize in a public airport.

I just don't.

I could see it.

I could be, you know, be something to chuckle at when you flew in because I mean, they sold what, 35 million copies of GTA 5.

That's just crazy, man.

That's just crazy money.

Not to mention the online versions and we talked about that last week.

But yeah, this.

Just mentioning that.

But here's.

I got a couple more stories here and these are real Short ones.

The Fed like an hour in.

Sorry.

Then the Kojima was one I had to throw in the last minute.

I had to mention that the Federal aviation Administration, the FAA and the U.S. department of Transportation recruited and hired more than 2,000 video gamers into its air traffic controller training pipeline to help bridge chronic staffing shortages across the nation's control towers.

The FAA reached 94% of controller hiring goal after targeting video gamers.

Of course they talk about why gamers.

Because we have spatial awareness, 3D visualization, rapid decision making under stress and we can multitask.

And communications are very good as well.

The.

The newly.

The newly hired.

Let me finish.

The newly hired gator.

The newly hired trainees enter the FAA academy in Oklahoma City for an intensive simulation and protocol instruction.

While federal leaders hailed the intake as historic.

Industry analyst and aviation safety groups note that the severe staffing deficits persist with thousands more certified controllers needed nationwide and empathize.

Emphasize that trainees still face demanding multi year certification hurdles and high pressure operation environments.

Becoming fully licensed faculty controllers now.

I remember Washington pushing 10 with.

I don't remember who was.

But it was all about the life of an air traffic controller.

How they made tons of money.

But the pressure was intense.

If they made a mistake.

They only got three mistakes and they were canned.

They could never enter in the.

The air traffic controller program ever again.

I don't know.

What do you think, Kings?

I. I don't.

I don't know who came up with this idea.

Well, first of all, isn't everyone considered a gamer these days?

But maybe they have like a certain level.

They're hiring the hardcore gamers.

Like you play over a certain amount per.

Per week or per month or something.

There you go.

Another new job.

It seems fine.

Okay.

It seems.

I mean I'm.

Hey, we need it.

What type of games are.

Like, I'm just being funny with all this but like what type of games?

Like.

Oh, well, you play Final Fantasy.

We don't want you.

Oh, you play this.

We want you.

You play Missile Command.

Oh, we want you.

Yeah, yeah.

There you go.

All right.

That's a long.

That was a.

That was a.

That was a.

A blast from the past.

All right, I got one story and I'm excited, Kingsley, because I cut my teeth on this game many moons ago before Destiny was even in the picture.

Something actually good coming from Sony these days.

This is from the VCG.

An article from VGC.

PlayStation is reportedly working on a Killzone remake.

They are reportedly planning to revive the Killzone series with a new Remaster or remake.

Currently in the early stages of development.

That's according to MP first, which claims the original Killzone developer Guerrilla Games is working with an external studio on a Killzone remaster, quote or slash remake.

The publication speculates that this could be a revamp of the original 2004 game.

According to sources, the Killzone's project was supposed to be Guerrilla's next focus after Horizon Hunters gathering, but plans changed following the recent decision to allegedly delay that project and pivot away from live service.

Currently, the majority of Guerrilla staff are said to be working on the multiplayer game.

Part of Guerrilla will likely switch to Killzone after.

I mean they're working on, they're working on.

What was it?

I just mentioned it.

Interstellar.

But a part of Guerrilla will likely switch to Killzone after Hunters Gathering ships, it's claimed, with the rest focusing on Horizon three.

Man, I have so many good memories of Killzone.

I was, oh man, I, I, that's when I was really getting burned out on Call of Duty.

I was looking for any kind of first person shooter to get into and my buddy Fantasy, his Scott, A friend of mine named Scott.

I can't, geez, I can't remember his call tag now, his gamer tag.

But anyway, we, we both used to play a ton of it and it is multiplayer.

I'm sure there's, I think there was a campaign.

It's like Call of Duty.

There's a campaign and then you jump in and multiplayer is where it's really at.

But my God, all the, all the hours I put into that game.

I will be excited if that comes out.

So I don't know.

Did you ever play Killzone, Kingsley?

Ah, yeah.

So I don't have any comments on this, but yeah, it's always good news to have more stuff.

It's very much destiny.

Like it's dystopian future.

It's like it's like a single rule, like an autocracy and, and it's very dark times.

But kill zone 2 is my favorite of course.

But I did play the other games as well.

But Kill Zone two is the one that locked me in, man.

But yeah, Killzone was fantastic.

I played the first one on PS2.

Yeah, I'm, I think PS2, PS3 is when I played mine.

I think PS3 because that's when Killzone 2 came out.

Amazing Taco Kings.

I was actually interviewing for that when I started at Tesla with.

I was three days from signing my school contract with Tesla offered me an immediate job.

He's talking about the Air traffic controller job.

So, yeah, it's.

That's crazy.

I'm excited.

We'll see what happens.

You know, this.

This kind of.

This kind of makes me think.

Kingsley.

I think more and more of the gaming industry is more focused on either its own platforms, just increasing profitability within it without worrying about investing in too many gaming companies, or they're bringing back nostalgia, man.

They're trying to.

I mean, we.

We heard about Xbox, you know, making sure that they made a new Fallout game.

I think.

Is it Bethesda?

Bethesda was working on, I think the next Skyrim, and I think they got pulled off of it to make another.

Another Fallout game.

So I don't know.

I don't know what to think.

Yeah, let's talk about that just for a quick second.

I don't think it's that bad of an idea because get it, we want original games also.

As long as that doesn't totally dry up.

But I think it's a little bit safer making mustache.

And it's not nostalgic for everyone.

Like, let's say, yeah, for people that have tried these games, we love them to come back in a better situation.

But then there's the people that haven't tried the games yet.

Right.

And they may be more apt to playing it with better systems and better graphics than in the past.

Yeah.

I don't think this works as well for movies.

It's not that it doesn't.

They're trying to do with movies also.

But for games, I think it works really well.

We have that.

We also have.

Witcher 3 is getting a next gen update in a couple weeks.

If you own the game, it's big news.

I'm really excited about Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time.

Yep, heard about that.

It's getting.

That game's like 90, 98 or something.

And it's.

If you look at what the graphics were back then, what they did now, it looks freaking amazing.

I'm so excited to play the 90s.

Play this game on the switch too.

So I think there's a lot of.

Okay.

Where people like this and at least it's one thing that people can do in a little bit safer of a situ companies can do in a safer situation that will either A, hopefully cost them less money or B, be a little safer bet that people will be interested in getting these remade games.

You can't push it too far, but all I'm saying is that there's still enough market there that people are okay.

With it just seems like these Studios are getting very defensive and very protective about their platforms and kind of working within their.

What they have already.

The.

The days of going and buying studios seem to be over.

I guess Xbox isn't collecting any more studios anymore.

But amazing.

Tark King said though they were told to split focus their resources to expedite their projects, which include Fallout 3 and New Vegas remasters, Fallout 5 and Elder Scrolls 6.

Got it, got it.

Okay.

Yeah, I'm not a. I don't play a lot of Bethesda stuff.

I've not had good experience with Bethesda.

I mean, we had a Destiny killer that never did well either.

You know, thinking of that remastering.

You said off of one game, you don't play enough to give it a fair.

Oh, I know.

I get it.

No, I've played my share of Fallout, that's for sure.

Okay.

I'm your resident Bethesda expert.

Okay, good.

May call upon you in the future.

The train of thought.

I know that.

Oh, geez, I lost it.

Yep.

See, that's just too many articles.

It was a lot.

It was a lot.

It was a lot.

But yeah, anyway.

But no, I mean.

No, I know what I was going to say.

Speaking of games that should be remastered or remade, what about Destiny.

Maybe Destiny one?

Maybe.

Yeah, I.

The problem there though is that.

No, I guess there is enough content.

I'm thinking of some of these other games coming back and I'm like, well, Destiny is much smaller than Destiny 2, but there'd be enough content that I think people would be interested.

Yeah, I got you.

Okay.

That was our news.

I'm sorry.

I had a lot of stuff talk about this week.

I mean, dude, if you see my Google feed on gaming and gaming industry, there's like 10 articles every day.

I had to really fish through last.

Week, then make a podcast every day with.

No, no, I don't.

No, thank you.

I'm good.

Thank you much, but good.

No, I just.

I want to handpick stuff that seem very interesting.

Yeah, they're fun stuff.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right.

Kingsley has a topic he wants to talk about.

We're going to move on to that right after this.

Hello out there.

This is Ally Kate and you're listening to the Guardian Down Roundtable.

All right, next is Mr. Kingsley Mack.

What's on your mind this week, Kingsley?

What do you want to talk about, ma'?

Am?

Yeah, I wanted to talk about a general point on how there are so many.

I feel like it's gone up in frequency again.

So many misleading article titles and YouTube videos.

And what can we do?

Now, I know we may not all care, but what can we do to find what the actual story is?

So here's a little test, Todd.

Tell me what you think is wrong with this title.

And I.

This.

I'm giving be giving a lot of Destiny examples, but it's not just Destiny, people.

It's.

It's just.

It's all over the place.

But anyways, okay, this title says new free Destiny 2 release features official Leviathan Raid.

What do you think is wrong with that title?

It's not a game that is made by Bungie.

It's the operations.

Was it Sunrise?

I think I know what they're referring to.

What else is.

What else is wrong?

There's even something more glaring.

In my opinion.

It's a new free game.

Then it said new free game.

I'll.

I'll read it again.

New free Destiny 2 release features official Leviathan raid.

Yeah, it's not.

Okay, one, it's not a playable Leviathan raid.

And two, it's not a new release and it's not an official release.

They've just packed into the gaming space.

It's such false information.

I don't get it.

Like, I feel like we.

This was an issue five or ten years ago, right.

And I feel like it was getting a little bit better because a lot of people complain, like Clickbaity, article titles, YouTube videos and stuff.

But for whatever reason, things have been getting worse again, in my opinion.

I'm going to give a lot of examples here, but yeah, that's totally false.

Like the official the only way, and you can say I'm being too pedantic, but the only way you can say official Leviathan Raid is if it's how it was when it came out.

Meaning?

Meaning you.

The enemies are there.

Meaning you can play with other people.

None of that is true.

You can just explore it now.

Yeah.

They might down the road add enemies in.

They might down the road have a way to play with other people.

But not right now.

It is not official the official Leviathan Raid.

Did you hear the latest on.

I think.

I think it was lucky 10p I think mentioned this.

They actually have already retrieved some of the Red War campaign.

The like one of the last.

Like that's crazy, man.

I mean I thought it was lost to time.

They didn't retrieve it.

They rebuilt it.

Oh, that's why there's so much misinformation out there.

That's why people.

Yes, yes.

Okay, here's some other articles and I could talk about that stuff.

Some, too, because it kind of goes along.

I didn't mean for it to go along to this, but these were just.

For some reason, this whole Project Sunrise thing has more misleading titles than anything else I've seen.

Here's another one.

Destiny is officially getting a surprise new release.

Wow.

What do you think people would assume that would mean?

That means Bungie's back.

Especially if they didn't have any knowledge of Project Sunrise.

Yeah.

Destiny getting surprise release.

Wow.

Well, no, what it means is Project Sunrise people are coming out with stuff.

Why the hell would you use the word Destiny?

What would you call it?

New release?

It's old content.

What would you call it?

Even a release.

Oh, geez, that's terrible.

Here's another one.

Here's another one.

Now this one.

This is kind of going with what you're saying.

Destiny 2 bringing back playable strikes out of the content vault.

I don't have an issue with the second half of that.

I have an issue with the first half of it.

Oh, okay.

No, no, no.

First, the first half Destiny 2 is bringing back.

No, they're not bringing it back.

The Project Sunrise people are bringing it back.

Destiny's Bungee's not bringing it back.

It's in a limited state too.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

So it's so weird with these titles because I will give credit where credit's due.

I read the articles.

Cause I'm like, what the hell are they talking about?

This is not true.

Now, when you read the articles, like, the new free Destiny 2 release features the official Leviathan Raid.

Well, guess what?

Pretty much in the first or two sentences of the paragraph, they actually clarify and say, project Sunrise has brought back the Leviathan Raid in a playable space.

But that's all you can do so far.

But it's like they don't want to.

They want to mislead the title.

And this is really pushing false information because they want people to click and read and stuff.

Yeah.

And it really pisses me off that this has been an issue forever in our world.

I'm going to give some YouTube title videos now.

Okay, now this is an.

This is an opposite issue.

This is not like incorrect information, but it's so freaking clickbaity because it's too little of information.

Okay, here's a bunch of titles.

Tell me if you can guess what you think these mean at all.

I'm not buying it.

Yeah, that's a title.

Okay, you're not buying what?

And also.

Also, you can't even.

I purposely.

You guys can look these up.

The little Picture that go along with them.

The picture doesn't give enough information to.

I bet this is a thumbnail.

Yeah.

Yes.

It wasn't that, but it's close, right?

Okay, here's another one.

They actually did it.

Okay.

All right.

Another title.

I'll do the thumbnail.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Here's another title.

I can't believe this is real.

Here's another title.

I'm not jealous at all.

What the hell, man?

Here's.

Here's the best title.

Here's the best title.

Something is going on.

And then.

And then the last.

The last one.

This is looking better than expected.

And again, the picture, it was showing something, but it wasn't obvious enough of what it was showing.

You would have to watch the video to actually know.

So you know why they're doing this.

It's clickbait.

So you'll click in and watch the video because it's too vague.

It's a human face going, hmm, something's going on.

I just.

That's just.

I know that YouTube 101.

But you.

You're trying in those.

All those titles where they're not saying much.

They're just trying.

That's a.

That's an old, tried and true tactic where they're trying to make the human one of the.

Fill that sentence.

I know.

It's so annoying.

And here's one that you can actually do.

If you want to have a short title, I'll give credit where credit due.

The same person that gave all those names.

Here's one that they gave that actually is short and makes sense.

Okay.

Gears humbled me.

Well, there you go.

They played the Gears game and it humbled them.

Right.

Short.

Short title.

That's fine.

Right.

But here's the thing.

I mean, they won't get as many clicks on that one.

I hate to say it.

Right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

But, yeah, good for you at home.

Here's the thing.

Here's the thing there.

These YouTube videos aren't getting clicks from me generally.

You know.

You know what?

Like, I. I did research to kind of on some of these, but, like, I've been watching less videos from this creator because of these titles.

It's been getting worse lately.

And.

And I'm.

I understand some clickbaity here and there.

Yeah.

But when you're going that extreme where, like, 80% of the videos released have names, like, I'm not jealous at all.

Something is going on.

They actually did it.

I'm not buying it.

And the pictures aren't even clear enough.

I'm like, well, I'M not buying clicking on this video.

So.

I have some insight on this for you.

I think I know what the culprit is here.

I use Opus clips for a lot of my Todd the Exterminator stuff.

And I'll mention a word and they will take it out of context and put it in the damn title.

I'm like, no, that's not what that title means that I have to go in.

And I have so many times when I'm making clips for that TikTok channel or that YouTube channel, I have to read every title because they can be so misleading, dude.

Because the AI doesn't know the difference.

They don't know the context of what you're trying to say.

They're just picking out words that you're saying in the transcript and then throwing it without any context into the title.

I'm like, whoa, no, no, no.

That does not what I'm saying.

And believe me, I've let a few pass through and I get blasted for it.

I'm like, this says nothing about what your title just said.

Of course they're short, so not many.

People even hear two things about this.

So I'm actually trying to give them both a doubt.

I don't think they are using AI for title names.

Wow.

But if they are, then that's another proof that they shouldn't be doing it.

Yeah, people are lazy, man.

Some people will just click it and slap it on the ass and put it out there.

And they.

And they're just trying to make AI do it all for them where they do.

Where they don't have to spend as much time editing and stuff.

And I get it because, you know, your life is busy.

And when I'm making clips, I have I.

Some of these clips, I'm like, I would rather just go back and do it myself.

Because some of these clips.

Yeah.

Exclude so much.

I'm 90% sure these titles are not AI because of two reasons.

Because they have.

I can name the creator.

You could probably guess if you want.

But I know they have full time editor that does all this.

So it's not AI And I also.

And some of the titles are good.

So I think I know who the creator is.

AI for the title.

I think it's.

If I'll give everybody a hint, it is Two Titans and a Hunter's Favorite Contact Con Destiny content creator.

They're always talking about how much they love this content creator.

Wink, wink.

I think that's.

I actually don't know who they think, so I don't Know then, because I don't know who they think.

I don't want to call them out.

I don't want to call him out.

But it may not be the same one that we're thinking about.

Night Demon will know who I'm talking about, because Night Demon loves him.

Loves him so.

Well, I'm not talking about Rickakis.

Unless you.

That's who it is.

Okay, all right, all right.

I'll stop there.

But anyways, let's get back to the original thing.

So how can we.

No, it's all good.

It's all good.

So, yes, that's my little complaint, right?

How can we.

How can we understand what's true?

Information?

Because a lot of times people, they're browsing the news, they don't have the time or desire to actually read the articles, right?

So if they're seeing all this misinformation, and if they're not talking to friends, they might then misunderstand, like, whoa, Bungie's coming out with the official Leviathan Raid.

Or Bungie's Bring Destiny 2 is bringing back playable strikes.

You know, they might think all this misinformation, that's not actually true.

So this may be like, well, duh, this is obvious.

But, people, if you really want to know what's going on, you actually do have to read the articles.

You can't just AI Combine it all together.

Because, yes, AI Will go through articles, but they will give precedence to the title more than anything else.

And you got to spend time and look through them.

See, I'm the type of person that I'm always skeptical.

I.

Just because someone says something doesn't mean it's true.

I need to see another source.

So if I see a title that says Destiny 2 is releasing the official Leviathan Raid, I'll be like, unless I see this somewhere else.

That does not seem right.

Then I'll either click in the article and read it and see, like, oh, yeah, what they actually meant was Project Sunrise, and let's see what this Project Sunrise is about.

Or I'll compare it to another title that actually says something better, which there have been some other ones that say something better.

They don't say Official Leviathan Raid.

He just gave me an idea for a future video on this channel.

I can cut out my.

My.

My spinful theory I talked about last week.

I can go Destiny Online.

Confirmed.

Yep.

Oh, God.

Confirmed by who?

By Todd?

Confirmed by me.

I didn't say who confirmed it.

I.

You know, I don't.

I.

Honestly, Kingsley, I don't See it getting any better because our attention span is so short now these content creators have to pull out all the tricks just to get people to click on their titles.

Yeah, I know.

I mean, it's sad, but true.

But if you include too much information on a title, and I've learned this over the years, if you don't have that deficit gap in your titles, people just breeze on through.

They just assume they know what you're trying to talk about.

It's not about too much information, because, like I even said, his short one, Gears humbled Me was short.

And it's good.

What they could have done for a new free Destiny 2 release features official Leviathan Raid, which is already a little bit long.

They could have instead said new free release called Project Sunrise gets Destiny fans to let you explore the Leviathan Raid so much better.

Because that's true.

It is true and better.

But I don't think that would fit in the title pane of YouTube.

At least I made it the same length pretty much.

Okay, maybe one extra word.

Okay, Anyways.

Anyways, it's not just about the length.

Yeah, I get you.

And.

But here's what people looking at that title would say.

Well, yeah, I've heard about Project Sunrise.

Next click, pass it on, Moving on to the next one.

Yeah, so I.

So you have to create some.

I challenge everyone.

Yeah, you have to create some curiosity.

You have to create that curiosity gap.

I've learned this over the years when I make titles and I hate doing it, dude, I'd rather just say, hey, this is what it's about.

But the problem is nobody clicks on those videos.

Everybody has.

Everybody wants that curiosity gap.

And if you don't have it in your title, if it doesn't create curiosity, people don't click.

So, I mean, I just say I.

Do not respect people that create curiosity gaps with false information.

You can do it with true information.

I agree.

You can.

That's fine.

Like Gears Humbled Me is curiosity gap, but it's true.

So I.

So two points.

I'll end with, like, people, you need to do better.

You need to not give misleading information to give marketing curiosity gaps.

And, you know, here's the thing, too.

Like, I've always been the person that.

Sales guys don't trick me.

You know, Like, I've always been skeptical about stuff, and I always have found salespeople annoying ever since I was a kid.

And I get what they do, but it.

It's just so annoying.

I'll turn things around on them.

I will, you know, just whatever But I also challenge everyone to.

When you see articles, don't take it at face value.

This is what they want you to do.

But if you want to know just if something's true or not or get the actual information, compare, cross compare, read into the articles and stuff.

It's not just Destiny articles, it's everywhere on the Internet and it goes with AI.

Also, I can't tell you how many times where I've asked AI stuff and more than 50% of the time some small detail was wrong.

I'm not saying everything in it was wrong because I actually cross compare.

I'll check with another AI.

I'll check with just Google Legit and things and people.

I'm telling you AI is not at a point also where you can just take the answer and always be sure.

You should cross compare.

You should look at multiple sources and that's just my little Kingsley rant of the week.

But if you want to be correct with information, don't just go off of gimmicky titles, do more research.

I'm just curious.

I don't know.

I'll put you on the spot, but I think I know what your answer is going to be.

What is your favorite AI platform?

I don't know if I have a favorite yet.

I'll give you some answers on this.

I don't use it heavily.

I only use some technical integrations with some systems that I use with Claude.

That's what I thought you were saying.

Because Claude, because Claude is the best on the technical side.

Now that doesn't mean it's my favorite.

It's just, it's the best for a lot of the stuff that I do.

It's very.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's, it's.

And I don't code, but I have a lot of technical integrations into other like cloud platforms and stuff.

And Claude is the best for that.

Plus Claude is a good company.

They're very conscious and everything.

But I do have to admit when I see, when the wife asks for like a pretty like design of something, not like graphic design but like she wants some, some overall chat.

GPT gives a better overall answer.

Okay.

And then Google probably has like the best quick answer.

But they, they're the ones that, that I feel like they get little small things wrong like all the time.

It's usually right.

But you gotta double check some small detail because I'll read the Gemini thing and then I'll scroll down and they'll see things that are conflicting with it.

So yeah, yeah, it depends what you're asking it, I guess, I mean, I'm a big user of Gemini 3, I think, but I use Claude Opus for my shorts when I'm making my Todd the Exterminator clips for the short term, three minute clips or less.

And I have to go back, like I said, I have to go back and check all the titles that go to YouTube because it's you.

If you don't, you, you can really hurt your reputation.

I, I'll give you an example.

I use Google Gemini to look up a weed that I was encountering a lot of and I was too lazy to look it up in my, in my trades journal to find, you know, my, my reference book.

I just said, hell, I got.

Yeah, let's pull it up.

I made a video talking about this weed and I gave it the, it was totally the wrong name for the weed.

And then once I went back to Gemini to double check it, it pulled up a different weed.

I'm like, you told me this three weeks ago that this was the weed.

I'm like, I don't trust you anymore.

I'm gonna just go to the books.

I'm gonna go to the books.

And now I gotta do a video about, hey, I got this wrong.

Someone called me out.

This is not the weed.

But regardless of the name, I mean what I talked about, how the weed is controlled and how it acts and stuff, it's all the same.

It's just the common name was different, was wrong.

And I hate that, man.

Especially when you're coming across as an authority on something.

But yeah, well, that's why you just gotta check two or three sources, right?

It's like, I know it's more work, but you know, there was a saying in the religion I used to be in, in the mouth of two or three witnesses, you know, I mean, so it's like that's, that's the same thing too.

If you do two or three different searches, different browser Google searches, Microsoft or AIs, then, then you're gonna be at least.

You still can't say, you know, 100% that's the answer, but at least you'll know better.

But I'm telling you for like high level stuff, like funny quips back and like really pretty, like, like, like little forms and pages it can make and like the one that seems the smartest, like an actual human right, Man.

Even though I don't love the company, Chat GPT has everyone else locked down.

If you ever start using Chat GPT, they are ahead of everyone with just overall, like high level stuff.

Jeez.

I, I, yeah,.

Yeah.

I mean, that's, you can see why some people just tune out of social media a lot of times.

I can see why they do it because it's such an overload of information sometimes.

And, and if it's not, if it's misleading, it's not even correct, then it's even worse, man.

It's a waste of your time.

So.

Yeah, I get that, man.

That's a good topic.

Actually, we've never even talked about that before.

That was good, good bringing that up.

Thank you, man.

Yeah, it's a topic that goes from A to Z.

It honestly does.

It honestly does.

All right, I have a topic I want to share this week and we will get to that next.

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All right, boys and girls, for this week's topic of the week, I'm talking about cloud gaming, specifically Xbox cloud gaming.

Because I don't know if you heard the announcement, they have seriously put limits on your on your cloud gaming services.

This is an article by WCCF Tech.

It seems that Xbox truly can't go a week without some sort of PR debacle.

This time around, it's about Xbox cloud gaming.

It was actually supposed to be a good week on that front, but on Friday, Microsoft's gaming division announced the Xbox app would be coming to smart TVs popular televisions in the coming months, allowing owners of smart TVs to play Xbox games via the cloud.

This follows the launch of the same app on Samsung and LG TVs, which I have a Samsung TV or do I have an LG?

I don't know.

They're so, so alike.

But as part of Microsoft's attempt to bring hardcore gaming to the masses who do not own dedicated gaming devices.

I mean, it sounds like a good story.

Of course to actually play games through the Xbox app on these TVs, you need an Xbox Game Pass subscription.

But on Thursday, Microsoft had just informed users that starting in November it would significantly reduce the multi hours of Xbox cloud gaming.

And this would be across all tiers.

Previously there were no limits, which admittedly was a bit excessive, but Nvidia has introduced limits on its GeForce Now I think it's a hundred hours a month or a week.

Are you sure they just announced that?

I feel like that's been that way for a while.

What?

Nvidia?

Yeah, Nvidia introduced limits on its industry leading GeForce now cloud service which recently added support for DLS 4.5 and DLSS 5, widening its gap over competitors.

However, the new limits for Xbox Game Pass are shockingly low.

For the ultimate you get 15 hours, for premium 10 hours and for essential 5 hours.

Microsoft says that 4% of its users will be affected by the change.

Bullshit.

But that seems like a stretch.

Even on the ultimate tier, that's barely enough to finish one average single player medium sized game per month.

For comparison, here's Nvidia's far more abundant allowance detailed in the table below.

Okay, you have the free version, you get one hour per session, no monthly cap, but limited to one hour sessions.

Performance tier, you can get up to six hours per session or 100 hours a month and there's a rollover involved.

Up to 15 hours.

Ultimate, up to eight hours per session, you get 100 hours a month and you can roll again up to 15 hours.

It's $299.

And they made that 100 thing on January 1st.

Way less of the year.

Okay, yeah, yep, so.

But additional clarity on these changes Xbox Gaming was provided by Windows Central Jez Cordon, who reports that Microsoft would be losing money past that 15 hour monthly cap.

And given AI's compute demands, they'd really rather not waste servers like that.

This falls into Within Asha Sharma's Xbox reset.

The new division CEO was open about needing to return to profitability after a very disappointing margin, which she attributed to the division of overextending itself, quote unquote.

It may not be a huge blow to the Xbox community, but as most of them weren't playing their games on the cloud anyway.

But it does show that Microsoft isn't betting on cloud gaming nearly as much as we did a few years back.

That's ironic given how cloud gaming is looking like an increasingly great option as hardware prices continue to rise due to component cris.

Take Two CEO Strauss Zelnick recently said he believes it will take off for good within three years, expanding the installed base tenfold.

If so, it may be yet another gaming sector that Microsoft and Xbox have lost to a more savvy competitor.

Now,.

Here's the thing.

They, you know, they, they roll out this Game Pass where you can play Xbox anywhere.

I mean, it sounds like they're scaling back that, that, you know, that campaign that, that Phil put out before he was moved down.

Now, just to be clear, Game Pass and playing cloud gaming is technically two separate things.

Even though they're combined together.

Game Pass just means you get access to all the games you download on your console or PC.

Right?

And then the cloud gaming is a separate thing.

If you don't want to download them on your.

On your Xbox or PC, you can play through the web.

Okay.

Yeah.

So Xbox comes out and says, hey, great news.

We're putting the Xbox app on all these smart TVs, massive footprint.

I mean, if you don't need a console, you just grab a controller, sync it to the glass, and boom, you're in.

You know, it sounds awesome, except right behind that announcement, they dropped the hammer.

Starting this fall, they're, they're capping cloud streaming.

If you pay for Game Pass ultimate at top tier, you've full price.

You get 15 hours a month.

I mean, you drop down a tier, it's.

I mentioned that already, but they're spinning it like this.

Hey, only 4% of users will be impacted.

Okay, first off, that's because your cloud tech has been laggy.

It's been a laggy coin toss for half the country.

But second, it wasn't the entire marketing pitch to make that number go up.

You told people their television was their new console.

Now you're telling them, yeah, it is, but only for 30 minutes a day.

Don't get greedy.

I mean, we talked about Nvidia, how they offer so much more.

But here's the thing.

If hardware prices keep going up, and this not only includes consoles, but we've talked about PCs being 2 and $3,000 now for just an average gaming PC, what do you think our options are going to be 10 years down the road?

My biggest fear is that hardware will not be a viable market anymore.

I mean, my even bigger fear, and it seems we're heading in this way, Kingsley, is that this will drive the gaming market to streaming only devices that are cheaper like smart TVs and more accessible items.

Like smartphones, which we already know.

The smartphone gaming industry is growing leaps and bounds.

But I can see gaming, I can see a gaming industry whereby you log into your platform, you establish a connection to their server and then pick your game.

And of course your saved progress will also be kept on that cloud service and then resume your game from just about anywhere.

I mean, hell, if self driving cars become the norm in 10 years, game streaming via local, global satellite and cell towers, in my opinion, I think will become even more palatable for the casual gamer.

And here's the thing, what drives the gaming industry?

It's the casual general gamer.

They almost always determine the market versus what I consider us old timers that are hardcore gamers now using these high powered computers and expensive devices.

I just see so much going on in the industry right now.

I think we're due for a market sea change soon.

I feel like all these factors, rising cost of consoles, the increased popularity and profitability of mobile games, combine that with faster and fast base Internet speeds in the country.

I don't see any other way this is going to turn out.

So why should I be worried about cloud gaming?

I should embrace this, right?

This is the future.

I should embrace cloud gaming.

You know, it's bad enough that we don't own our games anymore and so far we don't have any digital rights to own any games in the future.

But can you imagine from that Xbox example above, can you imagine whereby these big gaming platforms can then also control how long you play your games that you don't own?

I mean, what say you, Mr. Kingsley Mac, on this topic, I'm a little concerned because I don't want to stream my games and be told by the, the bigwigs, the billionaire companies up there that how long I can play, I don't know.

I, I don't.

It's bad enough we don't own anything.

I'm worried that we're going to lose even more control if we want to play games in the future.

What say me?

I'm already like 10 steps ahead of your line of thinking.

It's like I talked about this three weeks ago when I was last on the podcast.

If you remember what I was saying.

Educate me.

I was saying that, yeah, I was saying that.

And this is before the news of the Xbox thing came out, right when we were talking about the constant topic of hardware is really expensive these days.

But people can, you said, but people can just play online in the cloud.

I'm like, that's not necessarily a good option because if you're low on money, how are you going to afford.

And I was using numbers that I predicted they'd be going to real soon.

How are you going to afford a 30, $40 a month thing?

If you're low on money for hardware, you're also low on.

You don't want to pay a monthly cost.

30, $40 A month.

This is exactly what I predicted even three weeks ago where, yes, I feel like the Xbox One is a little too extreme, but even the GeForce one for right now, it's 20amonth and you get up to 100 hours.

I guarantee that'll be going up to 30amonth really soon.

And they might lower their hours some too.

So obviously cloud streaming of gaming is not really a great option.

Unfortunately.

There's just too much.

I hate to sound like a Debbie.

Downer, but like, I guess I'm coming around.

Coming.

I guess I'm coming around to your, your analysis of everything because it's just a control factor for me.

I mean if I have to pay 1500 dollars for a console in the future or whatever for a gaming computer, then I guess I'm going to do it because I don't like the option.

I don't like the other option of having to make sure my Internet.

Yeah, but it's bigger than that now.

As you see, it's, it's a money issue.

People that can't afford a console or a computer are going to be in a situation soon where they can't afford the monthly price either to do a cloud gaming.

So they can't afford any of it.

And it's really sad.

And so where are we headed?

You know, is it going to be cloud?

We're headed to crap.

Said for a long time we're headed to crap.

Crap it is.

There's our title.

We're heading to crap.

I don't know, man.

I just think about it when people might use the example, well, how come Google did it with Stadia?

Well, here's the thing.

I knew that wasn't going to last.

I knew it, I knew it.

And everyone's like, oh you're, you know.

But like Google, well, first of all, they make so many projects that they cancel anyways.

But to have an unlimited gaming at the price that they did, even if it was going to last, that would probably be like 50amonth eventually these days or more.

To have truly unlimited, if you're going to get truly.

I don't know if they want to add in unlimited, but let's say they do because obviously GeForce now and Xbox, they're not going with unlimited anymore.

Right, Right.

So if people, if were to ask for like, well, we want unlimited plan, just make it work.

Whatever price you need.

I could see 60amonth for these days for unlimited.

See, here's why Stadia failed.

Stadia wanted their cake and they wanted to eat it too.

They wanted to stream games anywhere using their, their little controller that you could basically plug a thing into the back of anything.

But they wanted you to pay for the games.

I'm like, wait a minute now.

You can't have both sides of this equation.

You can't charge us to stream and then also charge us to buy the game.

That just, that defeats the purpose of it.

You know, that's how GeForce is too.

They're that way too.

You have to buy the game to.

Kind of work that way.

Yeah, it just does not make sense to me.

The only reason why Xbox is in that way necessarily is because again, as a separate point, with Game Pass, you get some games.

Right?

Right.

But if, if you want to play a game that's not included in that, I think you still have to buy it on Xbox.

Yeah, but you can download the game to your PC or your.

Or your.

I got PC Game Pass.

You don't have a good PC or an Xbox.

That's back to the thing for the younger kids that don't have a. I mean, we're.

We're at the age we can.

Whatever the price may end up being, we're going to end up buying it because we can afford it.

But yeah, my son.

I don't know.

I don't know.

My son's running on a.

He has a really nice PC, but he's paying it over time, I think.

I'm sure he put it on credit, but I, I don't know, man.

I don't like the.

I don't like this cloud gaming.

I really don't.

Well, it's.

Yeah, I don't like it for other reasons because I don't think the resolution and the response is up to par with what I like.

You know, they'll perfect.

You don't think so?

They haven't yet.

When are they going to.

Okay.

I think, I think it's.

It's infrastructure.

I think, I think once that base Internet speaking.

You and other people have been saying that for over 10 years and I just, I just don't know.

You know, but just like, just like VR, Right.

When's VR finally going to get good?

Right?

I wish, I wish.

But, but.

And then some People don't care if you're just playing little dumb, little fun games.

You don't need top resolution.

Use your phone anyway.

That's the case.

Use your phone.

Well, or, or yeah, or the streaming.

But.

But that's right.

Why?

Streaming is not for me.

But, but I do feel like.

Back to the topic on hand.

The Xbox One took it way too extreme.

It's kind of sad because they've actually been.

You said they've been having bad news lately.

No, actually they've been having a lot of good news lately.

Bad news article.

And like they've been turning things around.

Like the Sony thing.

Yeah, like they, they've been.

Xbox has been doing a lot of good things lately and.

But this is really crazy.

I think what they're trying to do is put a hard line in the sand where sometimes companies do this.

Apple used to do this all the time too.

Where like they were the first one to get rid of the floppy disk drive in the computer and one's like, oh, that's so stupid.

But then other companies started doing it a year later also, right?

Yeah, but I think Xbox wants to.

Since they, you know, guess where they guess where.

Microsoft is making tons of money right now in their Azure cloud servers, selling.

It to data to data, right?

Uh huh.

And it's not just gaming stuff, it's with all their server stuff.

But also the gaming stuff runs on the Azure cloud servers too.

So of course they're going to be greedy and be like, this may not even be Asha Sharma's decision.

It might be someone up higher up in Microsoft saying like, hey, if Xbox is going to be using our Azure cloud servers, we need more money because you guys are just taking too much away and stuff.

And since Xbox drew this line in the sand, I can almost guarantee that GeForce is either going to lower that 100 down or raise their price sometime soon.

Basswindu in Discord Chat says, maybe because I'm old and paranoid, I'm not a fan of connecting my smart TV to the Internet.

So I will never use that new feature or service.

Won't be for a while.

Maybe when we have better data centers than trees, the res will be better.

That's a good point.

I mean my, my, as I get Sam, I'm pretty sure I got a lg, I think.

And it's always inviting me to just connect my controller and play a game and I'm like, no, I'm good.

I know, I know.

I get the problem is the process.

We've talked about this.

The processors in these TVs are so cheap.

And I think even just Deadpool and Merckx's, his, his, his wifi receiver was, went out on his.

I mean they make these TVs so cheap right now, but that pretty much will be the entry level for people who don't can't afford consoles or even more computers.

So.

Yeah, but then they're going to afford a $40 a month with, for like five hours for.

Well, I mean, I know this sounds counterintuitive, but $40 a month versus putting out, you know, five, six, eight, a thousand bucks all at one time.

I don't know.

A lot of people even know the math stuff.

14 Hours, no one's going to sign up for that for 5 to 15.

So they're just saying we don't want your business.

Basically they're pricing everybody out.

Theirs is very extreme.

I don't understand why Microsoft went that extreme, but I'm talking about the bigger picture.

Like, I saw this coming.

I knew that cloud gaming isn't the answer for everyone.

Just because hardware is expensive, because it's going to get expensive too.

Mark my words.

Yeah, well, okay, I'm sorry.

I wanted, you know, I don't mean this podcast to be doom and gloom all the time.

I want to say something positive about feature of gaming, but that just doesn't sound good, man.

I'm not, I'm not enthused with this, with this alternative reality that seems like we're heading.

But maybe, maybe, maybe VR and cloud gaming will come together and we'll have.

Ready player one.

There you go.

I had someone, I give it 30 years.

I said someone.

I was talking about that in one of my shows.

I put it as short on the channel and one guy goes, goes f, F Ready Player One.

Screw that stuff.

I'm like, okay, all right, whatever.

He's not a fan of the show, I guess.

Anyway, that was my topic.

I appreciate you giving your input on it, Dirk Kingsley.

Let's, let's catch up, man.

I want to hear about this trip.

We'll do that right after this.

Foreign.

Hey, Guardians.

Just a reminder that although we are the newly branded Guardian Down Roundtable, all the ways you can contact us are the same.

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What do you got to lose?

Okay, you can unpause your show now.

Later, Guardians.

All right, ladies and gentlemen, this is the last part of our show.

It's where we kind of catch up and talk about what we've been doing in our lives.

And I first want to hear from Kingsley because he went on a, I think it was what, a 10 day Alaskan cruise.

And I want to hear about it, man.

I want to hear.

I've never been to Alaska and my first question is, of course, did you see the, the Deadliest Cat Ships?

I know.

It's too far.

It's too far north.

I know, I'm just kidding.

Yes.

And we didn't see polar bears either.

Like you were joking about.

You weren't punching.

So for those that are not aware.

Yeah, there's like a very small area in northern Alaska that's near the north.

But like they have some polar bears there, but 90% of Alaska is just regular bears.

And it looks like there's not as much, oh, snow and ice as you might think.

Just because it's far up north.

Because guess what, it's also on the coast and that works everywhere.

When you're near the coast, you have to get, you have to get elevation to get snow because the, the ocean actually warms things up a little bit.

Okay.

Until you get to the very north or south, of course.

Oh wow.

Anyways, I posted a little and I also have it in the Discord under the Life Channel, but in case anyone doesn't know about the Life Channel and wants to see the route and I also post.

Let me see if I can put.

It in my hold on Here, copy.

If I can put it in Twitch or not copy.

Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry.

One second.

I picked the wrong thing.

Copy link.

All right, this is.

I should have done this.

Oh, yeah.

Post a link into.

In Twitch and YouTube.

Yeah.

No, on Twitter.

Oh, you want me to do in Twitch and YouTube also?

Yeah, I guess I can.

You're a mod.

You should be able to post links.

That way you guys can follow along.

I wasn't thinking about twitching YouTube.

I was thinking about Discord people.

But I guess I should think about twitching YouTube people, too.

I mean, if you want.

I'm gonna do twitching YouTube.

Here we go.

You can.

No offense, twitching YouTube people, but here.

Here we go.

Okay.

All right.

And anyways, so you.

Since you want to know about this, I will try to give my spiel again.

I've never been on a cruise before.

Is it all right?

Is it right.

Is it right to post these pictures online?

I can pull it.

Okay, I'm gonna go.

I'm gonna go and I'm gonna go and post it on.

On the stream with a. I did.

No, no, no.

I'm gonna post it in my.

On my streaming.

Oh, on the actual video so people.

Who are in Twitch and YouTube can see it as well.

Well, but it's a long link.

That's.

Oh, no, no.

I'm just.

I'm gonna just share the screen.

I pulled up your.

Your thing.

I'm just gonna pull up the screen.

You can talk about it, and I'll just flip through.

Oh, I see what you're saying.

Yeah.

Please come anyways.

Yeah, Okay.

I feel like this is so, like, all over the place.

Okay, I'll start again.

So I've never been on a cruise before.

I have been on lots of boats, though, throughout my life.

Anywhere from, like, little small boats on a lake to, like, speedboats on a lake or, you know, little tenders in the ocean.

Like.

Like, you know, you go on, like, in Hawaii and see the dolphins or the whales for, like, three hours, and you.

Or you take.

Or you take a boat.

Seattle, Washington, to Victoria, Canada.

Just, like, a little commuter thing.

So the reason why I bring that up is because, you know, boats don't bother me.

You know?

In fact, cruise ships have less sway, these big, monstrous cruise ships, than smaller boats will generally.

Especially if you're going on a speedboat or something like that.

But I never really had a super desire to go on a cruise just because I'm like, I'd rather just spend money instead.

Cruises have these things where you have days on sea and Then you go to ports and they have like these excursions that are pre touristy things you can sign up for or you can just live explore if you want.

But you definitely gotta be back in time.

I would rather probably just like fly somewhere, find a hotel, you know, explore on my own.

But I couldn't pass up this opportunity because it was free.

My wife's parents gifted us to go with them on a cruise through the Alaskan Passage.

It was a 10 day, nine night and it was through the cruise line Norwegian and Norwegian's one of the big ones you might have heard of like ones at Carnival, ones like Royal Caribbean.

There's also Princess, of course, there's Disney, there's Holland America, Virgin and then there's Norwegian.

And I'm glad we went with Norwegian.

Norwegian's kind of like upper middle.

Like you can go fancier with some of these ones like Holland or, or Princess at times.

But also Norwegian can be really, really nice.

Also nice and all in all, and I'll give some details, but all in all I had a good time.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend or want to go on a 10 day one again because I felt it was a little long and some people may say, well like why?

Like you know, if you're having fun, why not?

But well, there's points to it.

I'm like, even though I'm had a lot of fun, I still kind of like the idea of like again I don't want to be doing a same particular thing forever.

So like I think a seven day is kind of a perfect length.

But I wouldn't necessarily recommend a five day or shorter because then that'd be too short where you're just kind of getting used to things and then you're, you're done.

Food was on, the ship was better than I expected.

Okay, way better than expected.

It may just be a Norwegian thing,.

But all the cruise boats are really good.

I've been on several and they're really good foods.

Well, I.

But I've also heard though things have gotten worse over the years, especially after Covid and stuff.

So I don't think there have always been the same.

I don't know if you've been within the last several years.

No, no, we haven't cruised in a decade.

I have read that food quality has gone down some.

Okay.

So I was not sure what to expect.

But I will say it was still really, really good.

The things about these ships is it's not just like you have the big buffet thing and that's it well, first of all, there's multiple rooms of buffet things.

Then there are a lot of things that are like sit down or quick service.

That's the same free included thing.

If you don't want to be in the big buffet area, you can do a little and the menu will be smaller, but they have like Italian ones, they have like American burger ones, they have like Mexican ones and stuff.

And you can actually sit down and they'll have like a pre free menu where like, you're like, it's like appetizer, main course, dessert.

And you could pick like as many appetizers as you want.

You can pick one main meal and a dessert.

And everything's just like, you never worry about price once you get on because everything's prepaid.

Right?

Right.

But back to the buffet, it was way better than I expected.

Like, a huge selection and everything was like so clean, impeccably clean.

Like, they had so many employees going around.

I would have thought, like, they would have made cuts with employees.

Right.

But there was almost too many employees.

Like at times almost bumping into people or people asking you every three minutes like, oh, how are you doing, sir?

How's your blah, blah, how's your food?

Need anything?

Blah, blah.

You know, all this stuff.

I'm like, yeah, I'm good, I'm good.

Stop bugging me.

You know?

But whatever.

At least it was clean and tons of employees and service was impeccable.

One thing that was so surprising, and I guess this is known for the.

On the Norwegian ships is the big, big best thing out of the.

I mean, there's a lot of good food and I.

They had some fancy restaurants too, which I'll get to in a second.

But one of the best things in the buffet, ironically, was their pizza.

You never think when you go to like a buffet or a cafeteria that pizza will be good.

Oh, yeah, no, this was amazing pizza.

And I know, like, I can be a food snob at times.

Like, like they were making it in ovens, like constantly.

Like good quality, like, like crust from scratch.

Like really good amount of toppings.

Not like going chintzy on the toppings.

Like, everyone will tell you, like, the pizza is good on Norwegian.

So, like, I would always go back to the buffet for more pizza, which is funny.

And then they have fancy restaurants on the cruise ships too, which will cost extra unless you have a fancier package, which my in laws did buy.

Our fancier package allowed unlimited free drinks, truly unlimited free drinks, and four credits to the fancy restaurants.

And we say fancy restaurants.

These are places like Teppanyaki and Cagney's Steakhouse, which Cagney's, like, closer to Ruth's Chris quality and stuff.

And like.

Like, how do they get these places on a cruise ship?

Like.

Like, when you're sitting there, if you feel like you're in a restaurant, it's fairly large.

You don't.

You're like.

I don't know how they do it, but we were on the second largest ship that Norwegian makes, the.

It's called the Joy.

The Joy.

And so 17 decks, 17 floors, and tons and tons of cabins everywhere.

And so, like, it's like a world.

It's like a city.

Like, when we would dock in ports, like, our ship was usually, like, outclassing most of the other ships.

And I'm not saying that's necessarily a good thing.

Sometimes you want to be on a smaller ship, but at least as far as things to do.

Never felt wanting because a million places to eat.

A million.

They had like, theaters, you know, you can go the shows and everything like that.

And of course, the whole top of the ship is all the stuff that me and the wife don't care about, but all the pools and water slides and all that stuff on the top of the ship, and we avoid that area because that's just kind of.

We're not.

Pull people noisy and loud and.

Yeah.

And all that stuff.

Like, I love a pool, I love to swim, but I don't want a bunch of people around me.

I'm a snob that way.

And you can get just as good swimming experiences without going on a cruise ship.

So, like, you don't need to go on a cruise ship.

I gotta.

I got a question before you move on to the next part.

Yeah.

Break in any point?

Yeah.

Your.

Your dining.

Your nightly dining experience.

Did you guys have an assigned table where your group could sit every.

No.

That's another nice thing about Norwegian, really.

And I'm glad because I've heard about this with some other.

Yeah, that's the way.

Other ones.

Royal Caribbean is where I. I'm telling you.

Yeah, I heard Royal Caribbean does that.

And some people may like that, but I don't want that.

Like, I'm telling you.

I mean, yeah, there was certain times where things would, like, like the.

The buffet would close.

It.

It would be open at 6 and then close like at 11 to 12 for like, some cleaning and get ready for lunch.

And then it'd be open from like 12 to 5 and would close like from 5 to 5, 30.

And then dinner would start but like, I'm telling you, you could go whenever you want, as many times as you want, sit wherever you want, but you don't even have to sit there, like.

And also, our deck was two floors below the.

But even if not, we could take elevators.

But half the time we would just take our food back to the room.

What's the point of sitting?

And you can go back, get more food, go again, no one cares.

You can go as many times you're bringing another bowl back.

Oh, you forgot to get another slice of pizza, walk back, get another plate, bring another slice of pizza back to your room.

Yeah, my wife and I would take dinner sometimes and sit on the terrace.

We had a little terrace on our room, overhang the boat.

It's really nice.

Yeah.

And the drinks was fun.

Now I don't drink that much anymore in my life.

I prefer other vices, but.

Right.

But you know, I'm not close drinking.

And since they did the unlimited package, well, boy, I sure drank a lot more to.

How drunk did you.

Because I didn't have to worry about.

I never got drunk, though.

I never got drunk.

Come on, dude,.

It's too much work.

But anyways, I would.

Okay.

On any given day, I think three drinks was the most I had in one day.

But most days I had about three drinks.

And you would think they'd water their drinks down, but man, they put a lot of liquor in these drinks.

No, no, they're good quality.

Well, here's the thing too, because usually my first drink would be a mimosa for breakfast.

So you know, that's just a light, you know, that's just the, the sparkling wine with the orange juice.

And then I would probably have like another drink for dinner and then maybe a second drink.

Just relax, walking around or whatever.

I try all the drinks, man, I tried them all.

Oh yeah.

Like, I would go with like, they have drinks of the day and you can order whatever you want.

But they were like, oh, we recommend this drink today.

And they have like two to pick from.

And so like when it was the pina Colada day, and the nice thing about it is the different bars sometimes make it slightly different, which that was the only thing I didn't understand.

Like.

Like some bars may drink slightly different than others, but when it was the pina colada day, they made it really good quality.

They were putting it intolerant, top shelf liquor.

And they had.

You could tell it was about 2 ounces.

They put on the top it.

They weren't going chintzy.

They were putting about 2 ounces.

Do you get drunk?

You spend money?

I know, yeah.

Did they have a casino on board?

That's the thing.

Like, we are not going to be tempted by casino.

We're not going to be tempted by the shops.

So we didn't spend any other money.

Oh, man, you lucked out.

I'm in the casino.

That's like the first night I'm down there, man.

I love playing some blackjacks, Wheel of Fortune slots.

I love the Wheel of Fortune slots.

Dude.

I've won so much money from the casinos, I.

It.

I mean.

Yeah.

I mean, the problem is they get you drunk and you go down to the casino, you're like, oh, let's play a little bit.

I'll grab a hundred bucks.

Then it's like 500 bucks.

Then it's like a thousand bucks.

You're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

I mean, that can happen any casino, right?

Of course, of course.

But when it's built in on a floating boat that you can't escape and go anywhere else.

Yeah, man.

It definitely ends up.

Yeah, I don't care about that stuff, but.

Base Window had a question.

He said, how long did it take to get your land legs once a ship moves over?

So that is interesting.

Even though I never get seasick or stuff, there was times I noticed where the ship has basically two different speeds.

And you can kind of look at that map and there's.

There is a time at the very beginning between the first and the third day, and then time coming back between the last couple days where you.

You go the longer distance from Seattle up to Alaska, and you kind of go there when they're going the cruising speed.

It's not fast, per se, but you do feel the boat swaying some, and they have, like, stabilizers and everything, and it's nothing.

Again, like a smaller.

I've been on tons of boats in my life.

But the thing about this, though, at least with the smaller boats, you usually know you're only on them for like an hour to three hours, right.

And then you're done.

Well, when you're on the cruise ship for 24 hours and even trying to sleep through the swain, I didn't get sick at all.

It wasn't super annoying, but it was a little annoying.

And it is true that when we got off in one of the excursion ports, that, again, I wasn't feeling sick or weird about it.

But when you're back on stable ground, you're like.

You kind of still feel like it's moving, but it wasn't really moving because you're on stable ground.

You're just used to that swaying.

It's a slight.

It's a slight sway, and you get used to it on your ship.

But once everything stops and you're on the.

On earth, you know, on stable ground, you're still doing that for, like, a day.

You're still, like, rocking a little bit.

It's weird.

Your.

Your brain used to it, but everything was good.

It was a really good experience on the boat.

Now, a little bit about where we went.

I. Alaska is amazing.

I mean, I highly recommend this one.

We flew into Seattle, then went out of there, and you can kind of see the map and then all those areas.

So, like, with these cruise ships that go to Alaska, if you look on the map, Alaska is the hugest state.

I mean, it's basically a whole country to itself.

They never go up to, like, the main part of Alaska.

It's along the coast.

It's that.

That tail end where there's a lot of big cities like Juneau.

Juneau.

And then there's a lot of small cities like Skagway and Ketchikan and these.

These other, smaller cities.

And it's so beautiful because everything's very green.

Lots of wildlife.

If you guys look at the pictures, you can see that stuff.

You also kind of go up to this area called Glacier Bay, where you.

There's a lot of little, like, land masses that are covered in glaciers.

And then you learn about.

More about glaciers, and you go really close because they have these routes that the cruise ships can take that you can go really close to these glaciers, right?

And then, of course, you know, and then they talk about, like, Glaciers move, like, 6ft per hour sometimes.

They're constantly moving, and then they eventually break off little small pieces into the water.

And then there's the jokes, like, oh, no.

Is there icebergs and stuff?

No, no, no.

Like, these aren't huge ice.

Ice caps, like, in the north or the south.

These are.

Glaciers are pretty small in comparison.

And when they break off, they're, like, anywhere from the size of a couple feet to, like, 20ft.

But even the ones that are like, 20ft, they don't.

They're not like these big, monstrous things that go way down into the ocean, into the water that the ship's gonna crash against and stuff.

So they've been doing this for years, and it's totally safe.

But we get really close to some of these glaciers, and beautiful.

You can see some of the pictures and stuff, and.

And the temperatures were perfect.

Just a lot of days that were misty and kind of like 50s or 60s and stuff.

And so you're not getting baked by the sun in anything.

So I highly recommend it.

Alaska is a great place to visit.

I'm telling you, everything's different up there.

Alaska people, they don't even consider them part themselves part of the United States.

Kind of like people in Hawaii also.

It's like yeah, the part of the US that's like such a different, such a different world.

And I like it a lot.

It's pretty cool.

Zipping says I need a cruise with a baked in land party.

What do you mean by baked in there Zipping?

I'm curious on the Internet topic, it was better than I expected.

Now this is one area where they get you and I had to have unlimited Internet because of just I did go off the grid for the most part.

You guys even noticed I wasn't talking in the discord but.

But I did have to be available to if there was any emergencies, remote into a server or things that I just kind of do at night anyways.

You know, I wasn't gonna be like getting on phone calls with customers and doing big help.

Like I said, I'm out of town but like you know, there's still things I need to do to keep my lifeblood on my business working.

So they have included Internet for free which only gives you 150 minutes and it's a slower speed.

Or you could pay for the premium package which I had to pay for whatever it was.

That was the one thing I paid for.

But it was before I even got.

On the cruise ship.

You the write off too?

It was through Starlink and Starlink works really well.

I think it's telling you like 30.

I think it was like 30.

Or is it faster?

I don't.

I never did a speed test.

I didn't care because it was working well.

I was able to stream stuff when a few times we wanted to watch stuff.

But also I was able to remote in VPN do all my business stuff and I had unlimited Internet and also geeky thing here people.

If anyone's ever heard of a travel router, I have one of those now through Unifi is the company I really recommend.

They're useful in hotels also, but especially on cruise ships.

Because if you're ever somewhere that says you got to pay per person for Internet.

Well if you have a travel router, you don't.

You pay the once on the travel router and then it sends out my same wireless name and password and my home network.

So all my devices, all my wife's devices connected to my same WI FI name and password that I have at home.

Nice.

But then the travel router was the one connection to the ship's network and so I only had to pay for the one Internet and then I was able to share it out.

Nice.

I like that.

Yeah, that's smart.

And I was able to do my VPN and everything too.

So like you know, the ship wasn't tracking what I was doing so.

Dude, that sounds, oh yeah, there's lots.

Any other questions?

But yeah, it was good.

Yeah, yeah.

No, I mean, but you know, it's gorgeous, man.

I, I, yeah, it's really cool place.

Okay.

My wife wants to go on a cruise in Alaska.

That's probably the one cruise I'm ready to get back on.

The other thing that I'm a little still concerned about, probably one of the biggest reasons why I didn't want to go too is there were some minor sicknesses in our group.

It's just, it's, it's like it's almost guaranteed to happen when you're on a cruise ship for that many days.

Right.

Nothing big.

That's not like people were getting like sicknesses that had to take them to the infirmary or these things that you hear.

But like my wife and then also my mother in law kind of got some minor stomach upset for like a day, you know, so whatever, it sucked.

But, and, and when you have a longer cruise too then at least you don't feel like if you lost a day then you're losing.

Right.

A fourth of the cruise.

Because it was a 10 day cruise.

But, and, and I'm telling you, everyone was very clean.

Like all the guests too.

Like everyone was like all like you go into the, the buffet areas and there's hand washing stations, like full water, soap, everything.

Like everyone seemed like the guests seemed clean.

Like we were washing our hands all the time too.

But it's like still, it's like there's sometimes nothing you can do if you're a certain sickness.

You're around 3,000 people on a floating boat.

I mean it's just really hard to avoid.

Yeah.

So I would do a seven day and I would hope to not get sick, but other than that I recommend it now.

I don't know.

You know, cruises used to be even cheaper and I was looking at how much this one cost and I, they use their points, they're always doing travel stuff and I wouldn't have want to pay that much money but it was a very nice experience.

Nine nights.

That's a lot.

That's a lot.

I've done a lot of Caribbean, Western, Eastern Caribbean, Bahamas and stuff from Florida because everything's so close.

I think we do usually one week.

And I used to go with my parents all the time.

It was so much fun when they were younger and we would have so much.

And then we would have an assigned table.

The thing about the assigned table was nice is whatever everybody did, the whole family went and did their own thing on the boat or offshore or whatever.

We'd all come together at dinner at night.

If, unless it's, you know, we still did that sometimes.

Okay, yeah, good.

Not like there weren't enough tables.

It's just we didn't have an assigned table or assigned eating time, you know.

But the cool thing was you had a server assigned to your table.

You knew him by name by three or four days and he would always do some extra stuff for you and oh, you want that kind of dessert?

Let me see what I can get.

Let's see what I can do.

They would bend over backwards to make you happy.

Yeah, so we didn't have that at the buffet, but at the sit down places that you would, we would get that experience and we would run into the same servers and they would, they'd wait on you and stuff.

So yeah, yeah, I, I, I'm telling you, I wouldn't go to an assigned for sure.

But, but we always had the option, I'm not saying it's bad.

They had a Johnny Rockets on the boat.

We went to get some hamburgers and 50 style shakes and stuff.

They did have those big restaurants too, but we didn't have that package.

And yeah, you had to pay full prices if you went in there.

And I was like, ah, you know, I'm not that desperate.

I'll just go, you know, go back to my dinner table and get dinner.

Because the food, like you said, the food was so good.

And of course the, I didn't have the unlimited drink option.

I just, you, they basically just set you up with a tab as soon as you walk on the boat.

Be careful with that tab.

That is a line you do not want to be in figuring out which credit card is going to cover this damn tab of, you know, eighteen hundred dollars.

You're like, what the hell did I buy for eighteen hundred dollars?

And they give you a per.

Did they love, I love those printouts they give you the night before stuff underneath your door.

And you're like, holy crap, who that ordered that you know, you start pointing your fingers at each other.

Well, wait a minute.

Did you order that?

That's a, that's an expensive drink.

What the hell?

Yeah, and.

But you know what?

After we cruise for a while, we just knew that's just the way it was and we just do that.

But I mean, I'm glad you had a great time, man.

My wife does want to do a.

That's one cruise she does want to do.

She's really weird about bathrooms and stuff being clean and spotless.

And the last cruise we were on, which was the last cruise we went on, was a Navigator of the Seas.

It's, it's one of their big boats out of, out of Miami.

And there was, there was hair on the, in the shower and it just freaked her out.

Yeah, not like that.

I would recommend, and I know Royal Caribbean can be good, but generally Norwegians known to be a little bit nicer, so you might want to consider them next time.

Now Royal Caribbean has more shows though, so if that's important to you.

But I would rather have a cleaner experience than a more chill experience.

They're.

They're all good.

They're all good.

I mean, I mean there's even smaller lines that have really great cruises.

I haven't met on those, but.

Well, everyone knows Carnival is the lowest one.

Yeah, Carnival's your.

Yeah, you can get some really good weekend, you know, like three day cruises, like, you know, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, come home, you know, Monday morning or they.

That's a lot of cruises like that out of Port Canaveral here in Florida.

But yeah, I mean, you cruising.

I love cruises.

You know why?

Because you're not fricking driving on the road trying to get to where you need to go when you have to spend 18 hours to drive to the mountains or wherever to get to your place where you can finally sit down and enjoy yourself.

It's the driving that kills me.

And flying's fine.

You know, the airports are hectic, but I just love being able to park my car.

And of course they charge you a mountain of money to park your car at the port.

Port fees are crazy.

And then just hop on the boat and just sit back and get taken care of.

Cruises are a lot of fun like that.

If you've never been on a cruise, try it at least once and I think you'll have a good time.

I've always had.

Yeah.

So, yeah, again, I'd say, like, I'm glad, like I didn't pay the money for it and I still would have been okay.

If I've never been on a cruise in my life.

But it was a little bit better than I expected for sure.

So I can't say I didn't.

I didn't enjoy it.

So I had.

I had a lot of fun and.

Yeah, yeah.

And.

Oh, they had the.

It was also nice too.

Just even the water and the machines too.

They had really good quality ice and water machines like everywhere, like almost every day.

So like, that's cool.

You know, you didn't have to worry about like crappy water or whatever and just got to take the glasses back to your room and stuff.

So it was really nice that way too.

All right, well, deal.

Anyways, I got too far along.

That's all right, man.

Any.

Yeah, anything you want to talk about?

Anything else you want to talk about and catch it.

Yeah, go for it.

Yeah.

You know, just gaming wise since I've been back, just mostly been chilling.

I think I did do one raid.

Yeah, I did.

Well, of course we did our Saturday one too.

I forgot about that.

But I've really been kind of.

You can talk about more of that if you want.

But I've really been enjoying.

I kind of want to finish my second playthrough of cyberpunk.

So I've been in that a lot lately.

And again, I'll do a thing where I.

Well different from my first playthrough, which was years ago, but like it's the same.

The second playthrough I haven't officially gotten all the way through yet.

Okay.

But it's one of these things too where people may see me on all the time, but it's so funny.

I'll open up the game and I'll get distracted and I'll go do something else and I might only play for like 10, 20 minutes at a time, but I just keep the game running or paused.

It's nice.

You can jump in and you can just keep it on and just jump in and say, hey, all right, let's run this mission.

You know, I need to go do this.

It performs so good on my computer now.

I'm just really impressed with that I'm Embryon driver updates they gave the FSR4 is really, really nice.

That's right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I've been playing on my PS4.

It's been working good, man.

Yeah.

And then I'm also excited about Apple announced their first foldable phone.

I knew it was coming at their big event.

Yeah, well, we all knew it was coming, but.

And normally I wouldn't be for this type of a thing because obviously foldable phone's been around for a while, 7 years ish or so.

And whatever the reasoning was like oh they wanted to perfect it or something.

But when I looked at all the details and saw this, I actually am going to get this phone.

It will work for me because I also have an iPad mini that I like to watch things on and I don't like having a big phone but the way that the phone is where it's not super thick when it's folded and it's super thin when you open it.

When you open it up it's almost the size of an iPad mini really.

So yeah it has the screen on the back when you have it closed and folded or you'd say the front then you open it up and the inside screen is beautiful.

And also Apple you know, took many years perfecting this.

They compared to anyone else basically you cannot see the fold at all.

It is so freaking really the precision that they're using.

Yeah and I know that they use parts.

They always, people have always used parts combined together.

Samsung often does screens but Apple makes their chips which, which of course.

Well they design their chips, their chips are made, you know, TSM scene stuff.

But the amount of machinery and precision that's gone into this phone is pretty amazing.

I was going to ask you how durable do you think the mechanism is going to be that connects those screens?

Well some of the original phones were just eh.

At best like you're talking about seven years ago.

Samsung and other companies have made it better over the years.

And of course Apple's freaking looks amazing.

The precision machinery that they have in the folding mechanism be my next phone and stuff.

And again when it's open there's basically no crease at all even compared to other phones that you see.

So it's pretty amazing the technology.

You know what the starting price is going to be.

You know you're going to pay a lot more for memory of course.

No, I don't even want to talk about.

They're all expensive.

Like the cheap.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna lease this phone.

I lease my phones anyways.

It's 2k I think like the cheapest.

The cheapest even like Samsung ones are usually like 1800 or something like that.

Like foldable phones are expensive but again this is an iPad and a phone and everything and it's a business expense and I'm gonna lease it.

So I'm not, see I'm not paying.

That may work for me because I have An I Don't laugh now.

Don't laugh.

I haven't.

I have an.

I have an.

I have an Apple tablet 2.

It's old man tablet.

You mean iPad, iPad mini or regular?

No, I got an iPad regular.

It's like a two I think it's really old.

I use it in my bedside just to play music really.

But now the battery won't hold up.

That's what usually happens on these.

The batteries start getting spin in them so I have to keep it plugged in.

So maybe that will be a good crossover for my next phone is going that route because I'm just going to.

An iPad Regular is a much larger screen.

You got to compare this more to an iPad mini because it's not big of a.

My wife has a mini.

I know what you're talking about.

Size wise.

Yeah.

I realize it's not gonna be that big.

I actually like the mini better than the regular size iPad to be honest.

Me too easy, easier to handle because if I'm.

If I want a bigger screen then I have my laptop or my desktop.

But for a little handhold a mini was the largest I ever wanted.

And so now this phone can kind of do double duty.

It's a little bit smaller than a mini when it's open.

Anyways, I don't need to bore people with this.

But I am excited on a rare technology thing.

I mean this is the first new form factor they've had in years and so they really took their time to kind of perfect things and stuff.

And so it'll work for me in my business.

I'm just geeking about that a little bit.

I had an iPad too that I won on my last cruise.

I thought.

Yeah, you said you're.

Yeah, there you go.

No idea what happened to it.

Yeah, no idea what happened to it.

2000 Is the same price as the Pixel and Samsung fold zipping says so I guess that's the going right now.

I mean if it's a 2 in 1 device I've heard some are as.

Cheap as like 1800 but yeah, 2 is 2k for the folds.

The folds are very big in China.

A lot of people have the folding phones in China.

It's not as popular here in the US Mostly because of price.

But again this is a business expense that I'm going to.

Yeah.

But the leasing cost is not super expensive so.

And I need it for my business too because this is what I do like and customers are going to be asking me and stuff but.

But selfishly also it's Going to be a fun, a fun present to me, you know?

Yeah.

Heck yeah, man.

I mean, but that's the thing about being a businessman.

It's one of the few benefits we have is we can write off a lot of expenses that we use in our business.

So why not?

Dude, that's the way I look at it.

If it's a two in one device, it might be worth it for me.

But the problem is zipping.

I usually get like at least 512 in gigabytes in storage.

Well, the 512 is 200 more I think.

You know the only thing I hate.

About Apple, they really, they really charge you for that memory, man.

And it's not.

Well, these days.

No, these days it's.

Everyone's charging to see.

Well, of course the funny thing that Apple's prices are actually more.

Yeah, they're actually more traditional.

That's a traditional price.

You're right.

You're right, Todd.

You should be okay with 256 though.

Seriously.

I'm, I'm okay with 256, dude.

I'm recording videos all the time on my iPhone 13 and I'm, I'm always, I don't know, I don't know how much storage.

So you have 512 right now and you need 512.

I have 512 and it's probably three quarter full.

I mean just the photos.

200 Or, or lease for another $3 a month or something like that.

You know, that's a problem.

Zipping.

I have to export every time.

All, everything all the time.

I'm paying more and more for cloud storage.

And don't get me started on cloud storage.

What a frick.

It's like, it's like having a storage.

It's like paying a monthly payment on a storage shed.

You know, one of these storage places hold all your junk.

Oh my God.

That's again, why the cloud stream gaming is an issue too.

Yeah, everything.

The Kingsley top setup the unifi nos for you.

Yeah.

Oh yeah, dude.

Unifi stuff is lifeblood of my business for networking stuff.

So of course that travel router I was talking about.

But I, when I go into companies and I do their, you know, I do their Apple systems, their computers, but I also do the networking and all the unifi routers, firewalls and switches is stuff that I know a lot about.

So if anyone ever needs any networking help, I can be your guy.

It's funny, my ipod, my, my iPad too is like, dude, you no more storage.

I Got like a bunch of songs in there from Apple Music and I, I hate having to my wifi spotty in my bedroom.

So when I want to play music man, I want it downloaded.

I don't want to have to worry about get, you know, connecting to my, my routers and stuff.

But yeah, it's, I think it has like, I don't know, a hundred or something.

It's, you know, like I said, it's been a while since I've bought an iPad because I don't use them much.

But if I can use this, if I can pop this thing open and watch a movie on an airplane or watch a TikTok video or something on it, unfold it to watch that, that'd be really cool.

I'm gonna look into it also real.

Quick on that point.

The battery is pretty impressive too.

They've done better with the battery than other companies that have folding phones.

Yeah, so they have two batteries in it, one on each side and it actually has the same amount of battery life as my current phone on the big screen when it's open or if you're doing the smaller screen when it's closed, it has like 30% more battery life.

So I'm pretty impressed with.

See they made the battery pretty good double.

As a tech podcast guys, it works out perfect.

Now I'm going to look into it because I got a 13 and I mean it's already starting to show its age but I got the, the, I got the, the Pro.

It has the better cameras and stuff because I'm always recording stuff on my camera.

So.

But I'll look into it.

I'll look into it and see.

I mean I use at&t and they have zero interest stuff all the time with very.

I mean they run Apple does too actually.

And I actually recommend people get their things through there because the, the providers, they do little tricks.

They, they do things to keep you with them, but if you get the same zero interest through Apple Direct, they just charge the monthly price.

They don't do these things where it's a higher price and they take off each month.

And then if you wanted to switch.

Providers, Apple's a bomb.

I mean I remember doing the demo on their virtual reality, but I just didn't have 3, 500 to drop into it.

That thing they should have never made.

We've talked about that before.

It's amazing.

Yeah, no, the demo is amazing.

It's crazy.

Does that matter though?

No one bought it.

The problem is.

And in fact they're gonna product now.

I Pretty much.

They, they, they're not shelving it, but they're putting it on a nap is the word.

And.

Yeah.

And.

Yeah, it's just, it just.

I knew no one would be.

It just.

I got a.

Kind of.

Got a glimpse into the future.

Of what?

I mean, all those, the 3D pictures and stuff that move and the smoke comes at you when they're blowing the birthday cake out, that.

That shit'll be on every phone in 10, 15 years.

You know, it'll just be standard on.

It's just like.

It's the way Mercedes cars are made,.

And we sent it 15 years ago, too, so maybe it'll be the next.

Actually, maybe, Maybe.

We'll see.

I mean, AI is supposed to breeze us forward, right?

I think.

Yeah.

Anyway, let's still go down that road.

All right.

Thanks, man.

I'm glad you had a good time.

I was, I was thinking of you when you were out of town.

I was like, I wonder what he's doing right now.

You know, I wonder if he's drunk.

You know, I'd be drunk.

I had unlimited drinks, man.

I'd be drunk.

Hell, yeah, I'd be drunk.

Let's see.

I, I've only.

I've really been trying to play my backlog games, but I'm gonna be honest, guys, I have gotten very little gaming in this week.

Business is crazy right now, and it just seems like I, I, this happens to me every so often.

I will come home, I'll get in my office, and I just don't feel like gaming.

I know everyone's had that feeling before where you get home, you're like, you know, I just don't feel like I want to play some art creators.

I want to work on that project, but I just, I just don't want to do it.

I just don't.

And I do this with Destiny too, where I just get.

You just don't want a game.

You just are just wanting to take a mental break from gaming.

And that's kind of what I've been doing.

I mean, I've been playing a lot of Galaga and a lot of older games, kind of bringing back the memories on my console back behind me here.

So I've been.

That's the only gaming I've been really doing this week.

I know it's a gaming podcast, but I'm just being honest with you guys.

I could bullshit you and tell you I played a bunch of, you know, a bunch of Cyberpunk 2077 or God of War, and.

But I only played A little bit of it.

But I did.

I've been watching a lot more YouTube on my TV, which is really weird because my wife's like, you're just like, you're getting like your son.

You're watching YouTube all the time, everywhere.

But there's not really a bunch on TV right now.

But there was a brand new movie on Apple Plus, Apple tv.

I guess they don't have the plus in it anymore called Mayday.

It was a Ryan Reynolds movie and Kenneth Branagh was also in it.

It's about an 80s spy plane pilot.

Got to go back to the 80s when we were trying to spy on the Russians during the Cold War.

And he crashes, his legs bent up pretty badly and he's taken in from this hidden ex Russian KGB officer who of course is Kenneth Braga.

And what Ryan Reynolds character doesn't realize is that this Russian loves America and he'll do anything to help him.

So he can maybe even go to America as well.

There's a lot of other complications in there.

I don't want to ruin the movie, but it's kind of a buddy cop type comedy.

It kind of hits all the notes and all the right time.

You know, Ryan Reynolds is very charming.

His, his, the writing usually always appeals to everything he does out there, it seems for a streaming movie, I thought it was pretty good.

But in a theater I think this would definitely be more of a.

Not maybe a flop, but it definitely wouldn't bring in the money that Ryan probably got from Apple to make this movie.

He's always a good draw, you know, depends on whatever the story is.

It's a light hearted kind of chill movie to kind of just watch with dinner on a random Tuesday night.

I mean, it'll do.

I give it a three star rating.

I mean, I'm probably being generous here.

It's just kind of an average run of the mill movie.