Latest / The #Backlog Breakdown / headlines and hot takes: april 2026 edition

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headlines and hot takes: april 2026 edition · The #Backlog Breakdown

• 0:22
  Hey guys, what's up? It's Nate and it's time for another bite sized breakdown of sorts. That's actually we're going to do. We're going to do headlines and Hot Takes April 2026 edition. And for this one I decided to ask Parker to jump on here and pick out some news stories and we were going to chop those up and talk about them for a few minutes. So buckle up kids because it's been an eventful night already. I guess I don't have a particular will. Parker, how are you doing?
• 0:56
  Yeah, I'm doing all right, man. How are you?
• 1:00
  I. Well, you know, I'm not doing well. I just. My Firefox browser has gone completely off the reservation and I don't know how to fix that yet. So anyways, yeah, but we're not here to complain. I'm not here to complain about that. I'm here to complain about things that are happening in the video game industry. So I think the first one I'm going to bring up here and I shared the link with you earlier but is comes from Video Games Chronicle. I think Chris Scullion wrote this and dude, Video Games Chronicle seriously needs to work on their, the ads on their page that is, it is an abomination.
• 1:43
  It's pretty bad.
• 1:44
  Yeah, it's pretty terrible. But oh my goodness, it's doing that. Oh no. I think it might have been Video Games Chronicle gave me the, the equivalent of PC. You know, some PC sort of like STD or something awesome like. Yeah. But the, the article from VGC says the headline is Shuhei Yoshida says he was fired from his role at PlayStation Studio as studio Nate. Talk pretty someday, not today, but Shuhei, let's try again. Shuhei Yoshida says he was fired from his role as PlayStation Studio President because he didn't listen to Jim Ryan and this, you know, and this. It's not too long of an article, but I'll just sort of read real quick here. He has, you know, we'll just sort of dip into some excerpts here, but Yoshida has stated a number of times that it wasn't his decision to step down as president and that while he enjoyed his new role working with indy indie studios, he had to take it or leave PlayStation altogether. Yoshida's latest comments came from when he attended the Alt Games Festival in Australia this past weekend, where he was giving a talk on Sunday about what makes an indie game successful successful when he reportedly made the comments as reported by this week in Video Games, Yoshida listed some of his achievements as Worldwide Studios president, then claimed he was fired for not agreeing to do certain things, which he didn't specify. For Ryan. I helped Santa Monica to make God of War, Naughty Dog to make Uncharted and the Last of Us, and Sucker Punch to make the Beautiful Ghost of Tsushima. Yoshida reportedly said Ghost of Tsushima was one of the last games that I worked on as the president of Worldwide Studios. But in 2019, after 11 years of leading the first party development, I was fired from the role. Jim Ryan wanted to remove me from First Party because I didn't listen to him. He asked me do. To do some ridiculous things, and I said no. I think this kind of like, this doesn't come as a huge shock to me. I don't think it comes to a huge shock to you either, Parker. And I think that we've seen that. I mean, there's been some people myself, you know, people on the Internet, myself included, have kind of called for Herman Holst's head. And I think this just kind of confirms, you know, some maybe confirms, but is that part of the reason that Hulse got the job was because he was a yes man? And we've seen what all those yeses have gotten us, and it has been nothing good. So it's like we can definitely, I think, lay a lot of the problems that Sony has been experiencing over the last, you know, five, six years as far as, like, the. The games as a service initiative at Ryan's feet. I think there's, again, though, there's a fair amount of blame to put directly at Hull's feet, too, for not having the intestinal fortitude or the integrity to look at him and say no. But apparently you say no to Jim Ryan and what happens is you get demoted and, you know, get told like, you're gonna get on board or just go home. So, again, it's disappointing, but it's not that big of a shocker. It's just kind of. It's kind of funny that, frankly, I think it's kind of funny that Yoshida is just like. Like, almost like, again, he doesn't specify what things specifically. I think we can all imagine what kind of things he said no to. But then also, just like that, he's. He's not making any bones about it. He's just like, nope. Yeah. Like, I mean, and again, the. The him saying, I didn't want to step down. Yeah. But even there. So it's like, it's kind of funny reading that, where he just is like, yeah, he's just kind of, he's letting the chips fall where they may.
• 5:52
  Yeah, he's a real piece of work. I think it's interesting, you know, it seems pointed that he references all the games that he helped Sony to make because it's all. They're like really high touch, critically acclaimed, single player, third person action adventure games basically. And so he's basically saying without saying it, but he's distancing himself from all of the Live Service stuff that Sony has just kind of, you know, just completely missteered the ship on. So. And I think actually looking at the same article you are at the end of it, he says, if I was in Herman Holt's position, probably I would have tried to resist that direction, referring to Live Service. Maybe that's one of the reasons they removed me from the first party. So he's kind of like, wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Like maybe I didn't like Live Service stuff and maybe that's why Herman got the job and why I got fired, you know, so it's kind of like.
• 6:51
  But who?
• 6:51
  You don't even have to really read between the lines on that. Like, it seems pretty clear if you read the article that he's like, yeah, I didn't want Live Service. Jim Ryan was like, we're going to make so much money on this. You either get on board or you're headed out. And he was like, no, sir. And he got demoted to indies as a result. So it's a right call on his part, but a bummer because we likely lost a lot of really interesting titles as a result of that and ended up with a bunch of really expensive canceled projects instead. So, yeah,
• 7:27
  you know, yeah, so let's, let's take a little bit of a pivot here though, and I think you're bringing something to the table about what seems to be a positive direction for Microsoft. So what do you got for us here?
• 7:43
  Ooh, yeah. So switching gears over to Xbox, obviously, we all know Phil Spencer stepped down. Asha Sharma was the surprise to take over. And that was a surprise because a lot of people thought that somebody, either Matt Booty or maybe even Sarah Bond, was going to take over when he left. But instead they replaced Phil with Asha and decided to chart a completely new direction. And it must have been quite a kerfuffle over there because Sarah Bond resigned basically as a result of that and decided she didn't want to be a part of it. So that has been kind of the scenario, I think that was like maybe two months ago. That has kicked off a lot of internal changes and a lot of what seems like kind of corporate soul searching within the Xbox brand. And so in the most recent, one of their, like internal memos that she sent out, and it looks like there's pictures from when they had some kind of town hall where she's addressing employees, she's talking about some really interesting stuff. I think one of them, obviously in the big headline is that they dropped the price of Game Pass. Well, first, let me, let me back up. Last year, Game Pass was I think 1499 at the start of the year. And by the end of the year it was like 29.99. They had like doubled the price of Game Pass, like within a very short period.
• 9:12
  That's the ultimate tier.
• 9:14
  Ultimate tier, right. I think all the tiers went up, but ultimate, really, people got whacked on that one pretty hard to where, yeah, 30 bucks. And that caused such a outrage with fans that I think they literally crashed the XBO site because so many people flocked to it to cancel their Game Pass subscriptions. So people voted with their wallets when Microsoft did that to them. And I think they've been reeling from that ever since. So she came in, new sheriff in town, she's been making statements already, Game Pass is too expensive. We've got a lot of problems we need to look at. And so now, this week they've just done what is kind of like a pretty unprecedented thing, which is they dropped the price of Game Pass Ultimate. I mean, when's the last time you heard of a major subscription service lowering the price of their offering? Like that almost never happens. So it's a pretty significant move. And it's clear that they financed it by pulling yearly Call of Duty titles out of that. So they're kind of backtracking already on one of Phil Spencer's kind of signature commitments, which is that everything under the Microsoft umbrella is going to be day and date on Game Pass, they're saying, well, actually, Call of Duty asterisk, no, that's not going to happen. And so the result is that that lowers the price of Game Pass ultimate by like seven bucks a month. So it goes from 30 bucks down to 23 bucks a month, which is a pretty significant change both in terms of their day and date strategy for Xbox, but also in terms of like trying to right the ship in terms of pricing on Game Pass. So I'm pretty pleased with it as somebody who has an Xbox and enjoys Game pass, but thought 30 bucks was like way too much for the service, it seems like a move in the right direction, but. Yeah, so it's interesting stuff coming through on the. On the Xbox front.
• 11:13
  Yeah, I think it's one of those things, too, where she is kind of riding the ship and they're going to be untangling Call of Duty from. From the Game Pass, because that was the thing it was like. And. And everybody knew, and I think even Microsoft, it's like, they kind of said, like, hey, like, for Call of Duty to be included in the Game Pass package like this. I don't know if they came out and said this exactly, but it was like, you know, they have one season of COD come out, and they're like, hey, we lost a whole bunch of money. That would have been sales. And they're like, yeah, so we're gonna make that up. And again, it's one of those things where you and I have talked a little bit like, you know, just sort of behind the scenes. It. It's like, there's probably some overlap, but the general Game Pass consumer probably isn't somebody who is like a Call of Duty Day one person. Right. And so for the cus, a lot of people are just sort of like, probably. Yeah. You know, flee the sinking ship kind of thing. And so it. It does kind of untangle some of that stuff. But, yeah, I. I think it's. It's one of those things Asha or has been. It's. It's interesting. It was kind of a weird pivot. Definitely, you know, left it. You know, that whole thing left some weird stuff. Like, weird taste in the mouth. Like, you know, Sarah Bond was the. Was the heir, apparently. And then, you know, it sort of seemed that she was. She was being groomed for Phil's position. And then, you know, we sort of get this left turn Bill sort. Or Phil. Uncle. Uncle Phil sort of says, you know, I. I heard somebody actually call him Phil Spender the other day, and that made me laugh out loud.
• 13:00
  That's a good one.
• 13:01
  But Uncle Phil sort of says, I'm retiring, and, oh, hey, here's your new CEO, and it's somebody that most of you have never heard of. And so Asha's ties to AI have been sort of like, that was a red flag for a lot of people. But overall, it seems like the direction that she's, you know, she's taking Xbox in is actually one that I would say is pretty healthy. You know, it was definitely one of those things where the ABK acquisition caused a lot of problems for them, and I think. Yeah. And one of the big questions is, what are you going to do with Call of Duty? And so I think in untangling Call of Duty from Game Pass. And for a lot of people, it's like, hey, you know, for the price of, like, they did the math and it's like three. Three months of Game Pass will get you. You know, you can basically buy Call of Duty new for three months of a sub. So it's like, you know, one hand or the other kind of thing. And, and. But yeah, so I think, honestly, I think this is. Is pretty encouraging. I think this does sort of seem like a writing of the ship. And yeah, I'm. I'm interested, like, at this point in time. Like, I'm curious about this. This young woman, this young lady. She seems to have a pretty good head on her shoulder so far. And. Yeah. Yeah, so we'll see what she does.
• 14:28
  Yeah. I think it's interesting, too, before we switch gears, because I think there's a couple other things within this that we could talk about briefly. But one of them is she's made statements about wanting to focus on affordability, which is in direct contrast to what Sarah Vaughn talked about, which is Project Helix is all about, you know, creating this premium experience. And she's kind of. It makes it interesting to see what price point they're going to land at with and what the specs are going to be for Helix, because she's very much touting. And again, her whole philosophy was completely different because, you know, insiders have kind of claimed that, like, the whole this is an Xbox campaign, which was like, every screen that you have in your house is an Xbox kind of thing, was really unpopular with actual Xbox employees and with Xbox owners. Nobody actually liked that campaign, but that was like sort of her brainchild to one degree or another. And so since Sharma's come in, she's actually walked that whole campaign back. They scrubbed it off the website, my understanding is, and they unleashed a new logo that's kind of like hearkening back. She talks about wanting Xbox to be rebellious and affordable and kind of getting back to a lot of the language that they used at the inception of Xbox, signaling a commitment to continue with hardware. So it seems like she wants to take a very different direction than Sarah Bond would have taken things in a lot of ways, which I think is actually, if you're somebody who is an old gamer like me, who likes consoles, who likes console generations, who likes physical hardware, who likes exclusives, who likes all of those things, it sounds like they're rethinking a lot of that and that she's kind of pushing to get Xbox back to the basics, so to speak, even in terms of like reevaluating their exclusivity and how they approach that. So I think it's going to be really interesting to see what they come up with over the coming weeks, months, years ahead.
• 16:23
  That's, I think something that, you know, will probably pop up in the future is Xbox's position on exclusives because it's just kind of, it's one of those things where, you know, if the end game is monthly active users and it is about like driving profits, then, you know, yes, you have the PC base, yes you have the, you have the die hard Xbox base. But if you're sort of counting the PS4 and the PS5 numbers, like those are sizable markets that you don't want to completely withdraw from. You know, that's, that's, that's 150 odd million users, PS4, between PS4 and PS5. So yeah, that you could be potentially hitting. And again, we don't know what their saturation is or anything like that. But yeah, it's interesting. I think it's, I like this direction for Xbox. They feel, I think part of what I mourned was they didn't feel like they were kind of, they weren't destabilizing anything. They had sort of just like seeded the field completely and kind of left people to do their own things. And now it's like I've said it before and I'll say it again, I like Sony when they're scared and it feels like, you know, this kind of feels one of those things where feels like Microsoft is sort of saying, hey, don't get too comfortable.
• 17:51
  Yeah. They even changed their internal branding because I think they had stopped calling themselves Xbox internally and they were, they were really pushing toward this whole Microsoft gaming mentality. And she's already walked a lot of that back and it's like, nope, we're Xbox. Here's our new logo. We're calling ourselves Xbox. We're getting back to Xbox basics. The Microsoft gaming thing is done. We're turning the page on that. So I don't know, I think we'll see. It's too early to say, but I would say right now she's saying all the right things.
• 18:22
  Yeah, yeah. But let's kind of, let's round it out with number three in the trifecta. Out of the big three here, Nintendo. So Nintendo has had some leaks lately and why don't you sort of give us the, the quick and dirty on this.
• 18:39
  Yeah, I mean I, I'm like a little torn on this because like on the one hand, like I don't want to like I'm interested about these, but I also like think leaks are kind of like a maddening part of the industry. So there's part of me that's like kind of finds this annoying, but at the same time it is worth talking about. So I think it was Nate the Hate, who's a pretty legit leaker. I don't know who his sources are. I don't know. I don't know if those have ever been disclosed, but just somebody close to the decision making internally at Nintendo gave him a bunch of information about upcoming new releases and you know, just what the Nintendo strategy is moving forward. I think some of the headlines were things like a Legend of Zelda Ocarina of time remake for Switch 2. So not a remaster, but like a full from the ground up remake. So that's pretty big news. And in addition to that, not just a remake, but it's big enough that they're going to release a Special edition Switch 2 console to go with it. So if you're somebody who played Ocarina of Time and really enjoyed it but haven't played it in a long time, this could be a great opportunity to jump back in. Or maybe if you've never played it at all, I'd be interested to see what their new take is on the whole Ocarina of Time format coming out of N64. It's like a really interesting time period of games to try to remake, so that could be a really interesting title. But he leaked Splatoon Raiders, which even in the last like week or two we have a release date for that. So that one's basically been confirmed. I think the same thing for Rhythm Heaven has gotten a release date, so that one's been confirmed. He says Fire Emblem, Fortune Weave is coming out in the next few months. And also the interesting thing here, Pikmin 4 is getting a Switch 2 Edition as well as Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is also getting a Switch 2 Edition. So that would be great. I hope those are of the $5 upgrade variety and not the like really expensive variety, but I guess we'll see. We don't have any pricing information on it for that, but I want to play both of those games and haven't gotten to them yet. Well, actually I played Xenoblade 2, but Pikmin 4 I have, but I haven't played yet. So hopefully there's a cheap upgrade path for that one as well.
• 20:55
  I mean, that's definitely, I was just gonna say that could definitely sort of fit into. Hey, you have the Nintendo Switch Online expansion pass and just like Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, you know, here's. As long as you have an active expansion pass sub, you've got access to the Switch 2 version kind of thing. So there's also something that you know and, but Super Metroid is rumored for Switch to a remake, which is. I'm like, that is, that's pretty wild to me. I, I'd kind of love to see that because that was a game that. I am not a huge fan of the Super Nintendo version of that game. And so. But one of the other things here, just looking through some of the spoilers here are the, the, the leaks here is that according to the, the leak here, it's like there's no new Mario, no new 3D Mario game releasing until 2027. So you know, that's kind of like there's, there's a lot of potential good here. There's also some. If, if you're waiting on that Next Mario Odyssey 2 or whatever they're going to call it, like. Well, you're going to be waiting a little longer apparently.
• 22:15
  Yeah, it's kind of hard to believe that the Switch would be. Switch 2 would be at least 2 years old before an actual like tent pole 3D Mario game gets released on it. It's kind of wild to think that that's going to be the case. But if the leaks are true. Yeah, that is in fact what's going to happen. So.
• 22:32
  Well, and Mario Odyssey was not a day one exclusive or release. I'm trying to look at the timetable here. I'm, I'm doing. I know this is just the best radio and people like or the best YouTube. But let's see here.
• 22:56
  So
• 22:58
  Switch. So it's saying that Mario Super Mario Odyssey was originally released for Nintendo Switch October 27, 2017. When did the Switch come out? Switch
• 23:20
  release came out in March of that year. So.
• 23:23
  So I mean you're six months, seven months.
• 23:26
  But launch window. Yeah.
• 23:28
  Yeah. So I mean it's. Yeah, not day and date, but. So yeah, that's not quite. That's, that's not two, three years later kind of window. But, but we did get Mario Kart World. We've gotten a number of the upgrade pa. We've also got Donkey Kong Bonanza and there have been. I mean that's the one Thing Nintendo has consistently done is there's a constant trickle of first party exclusives. So and but one of the other things, and you had mentioned this to me too, to sort of keep kind of ticking along here is that Nintendo's actually talked about their pricing model going forward, the difference between physical and digital. And I think this is something where there's going to, we've kind of. This is, I think one of the things that when we were first being introduced to the digital economy a lot of people were saying like, hey, this is going to make games cheaper because you're going to cut out all the physical production line and this should be sort of a consumer friendly move. And what we've seen is that's not the case. It's like, well, it's $60 at Walmart and it's $60 on the digital storefront. But Nintendo's actually making a move here that a lot of their games are coming at a, you know, significant discount in the digital storefront versus physical. And yeah, that's just, I don't have those numbers on but I think it's like 10, 15 bucks, you know, sort of you buy it from the storefront, you're saving 10, 15 bucks. Kind of in that, that ballpark.
• 25:10
  Yeah, I think what we've seen so far is 10 bucks. Like I think the new Yoshi game is 70 physical, 60 digital, something like that. So about a $10 price decrease if you're buying digital, which yeah, I agree with you. I think that makes a lot of sense to do it that way. And I think Nintendo is probably going to make a lot more money in the long run because the more digital purchases they don't have to give retailers a cut. So they may have a lower price but they're having a higher profit margin on it. So I mean it makes sense from a business perspective why they would do that. But it's just a matter I guess for consumers of whether they prefer digital or whether they want to pay the extra 10 bucks premium to get everything physical.
• 25:57
  Yeah, and that's starting in May. And Yoshi and the Mysterious Book and this is coming from Nintendo's official site here. But Yoshi and the Mysterious book will be 59.99 on the digital storefront and 69.99 physically. So yeah, that's pretty interesting. Anything else you wanted to add to that or hit on before? We sort of keep moving along here.
• 26:25
  No, I think we covered it.
• 26:27
  Okay, I've got one. And it's about other leaks. So the game that everybody's been talking about for the last couple of years. It's the game that sort of dominates the headlines every time it comes up. It's not about GTA 6 but Rockstar recently got hacked. And this is fun. Like one, I have to just give props to Rockstar for just like some hackers were saying, like hey if you don't give us the information, like if you don't give us money, we're going to leak your information. And Take two was like okay, like bet. And they didn't. The hackers leaked the info and then Take two stock actually increased after leaking how much GTA Online is making Again going back to VGC here and this time it's Jordan Miller reporting in on this. And this is so wild to me. One, the numbers on this thing like the amount of money and I was looking at reporting about this. Yeah, here it is. He says in the article, according to the leak data, Rockstar is making more than a million dollars a day from GTA online and about $500 million annually. This explains why they can make a billion dollar game and not blink, you know and it's just like this is why they can take the time they can. And there's you know, in GTA Online you can buy the shark cards and it's, it gives in game money and all that stuff. But I just think this is like, you know, again just a ridiculous amount of money. Like this thing, it just GTA Online makes so much stinking money. This is ridiculous. But following the revelations surrounding how much money the game is still making in 2026, take two stock shot up when trading opened on Tuesday morning. Opening at around $202 a share. It then rose to almost $208 a share. This surge added about a billion dollars to the mega publishers market cap. Rockstar has yet to reveal his plans for the next iteration of GTA Online which first launched in October 2013 around two weeks after the original release of GTA 5. This and that's, that's the part that kind of is just absolutely wild is that. And this, this explains why so many studios and so many companies are desperate to sort of get it their foot in the games as a service door. $500 million annually. Like if you can crack that market and get it to work for you, you know, if you can sort of carve out your piece, there's a substantial amount of money here. You know, it's just nuts. It's also kind of interesting. What are they going to do with the new Grand Theft Auto 6. I mean, this is a game that I probably won't, I have no interest in playing. I just don't care about the GTA games. You know, they're fine, they're interesting, but whatever. I mean, maybe, maybe I'll be persuaded otherwise when it comes out, but I find that unlikely. But you can't deny just how big a phenom and how big an impact like GTA online has been in just gaming in general. It's like Grand Theft Auto 5 is consistently one of the best selling games. Like hundreds of millions of units I think at this point in time have been sold of that game. Actually I'll just do a Google search. And again, best radio in the world.
• 30:04
  I know,
• 30:10
  Yeah. And I'm, Everybody's seeing me type really well, but 215 million copies globally. So yeah, it's just, it's kind of one of those things where it's just absolutely shocking that this thing 12 years later, 13 years later is just ticking along and it's still making more money a year than I think most games make in their lifetime. Just insane. So I just, like I said it kind of made me laugh because one, I love Rockstar. Just being like, okay, go ahead. Like, I just kind of like love when people thumb their nose at these, you know, cyber terrorists and say, do what you got a man. You know, I think the other thing though too is like, and it's something where it's like people are like, you're making how much money? And just. Yeah. So any thoughts on that?
• 31:11
  I mean, debauchery cells is what I'm thinking. Like, you know, I mean, in my mind I, I haven't played these games. I stay away from them, I won't ever play them just because I know what kind of content is in them. So I try to steer pretty clear that stuff. And to me it's like, yeah, I'm on the one hand I'm kind of with you. Like I'm sort of tickled that like hackers, you know, you know, it sort of backfired on the people trying to cause trouble. But on the other hand, like, I cry a little bit on the inside because I'm like, man, if this is like a game that wasn't so, you know, morally backwards, like, you know, video games would have a much better reputation in the wider world and you know, there would be a lot more opportunities for other like, decent games for people to play. And instead the biggest entertainment event in the next decade is Grand Theft Auto 6. So part of me as a Believer is a little sad that that's the case and wish it wasn't. But you have to recognize the numbers and the cultural impact. Even if, as believers, like, we kind of, you know, lament the content, that this opens up for people. So, yeah, it's.
• 32:21
  It's. Yeah, it's one of those things where Wretch is going to retch, and it's just kind of. I think, one of the things that. It's rockstar. And again, I haven't played red Dead Redemption 2, but what I've heard is that the immersive level of that sandbox, like, just the way that, like, it kind of really captures people and, you know, actually sort of manages to gamify to fairly success, a fair amount of success, like, just even tedium, and that people are there for it. And so you've got this really interesting sandbox, this really immersive sandbox. But then it's again, like, it's like, hey, let's. Let's be as gross and as carnal as we possibly can. That sound like fun. I'm just like, it must, because they're
• 33:13
  making a million dollars a day with it.
• 33:18
  Sin sells, apparently. I got one more sort of, like, fun little, like, zinger here. And I shared this with you before, and you. You told me that you. You knew who he was, but you didn't really know the man, the myth, the legend that Peter Molyneux is. Peter Molyneux, the. The creator of Black and White, of the Fable franchise, of just. And just an absolute huckster. I can't remember. There was a thing, one of his biggest sort of. I'm hesitant to call it fraudulent, but, like, one of his biggest sort of, like, spoofs was there was this thing. And I think the. But there was this visual, like, this virtual reality boy thing that they. They were. It was this thing that this. This game or this experience that they were talking about for Kinect with Xbox360 or Xbox One at that point. And I think that it was, like, called Milo or something. And there was this whole thing where you could interact with this. Like, they did this whole, like, tech demo where you could interact with a virtual little boy named Milo, and it turned out to be just completely fraudulent, like, just total theatrics. But I think, like, the really wild part was that I think there. There was a window, a period of time where we were just like, is that real? Did Peter Molyneux actually do it? And it was like, one of those things where it's like, he gave Us Fable. And like, don't get me wrong, Black and White is a great game. I played that on PC years ago. I love that. When I heard he was making another game, Fable, I checked that out and he said all the. He makes all these promises about all sorts of stuff. Anyways, he promises. He's making us another promise now and he's promising that this is his last game. But that's not even the headline for me. It's in Early Access and it actually just became fairly available fairly recently. And this headline over at Gamespot just tickled me and it says, players say that Peter Molyneux's new God game is too much like Cooking Mama. This is written by Claire Lewis, April 23. But you know, he makes God games like Black and White and Godus. But Masters of Albion is his latest title. It's a God game that has just recently launched in Early Access. But what, what she writes here is that. But rather than feeling like an omnipotent God, players say the game makes them feel like they're trapped in a medieval version of Cooking Mama. The main gameplay loop seems to center more or less around a Cooking Mama style mini game, one player wrote on Steam, where the game's user reviews are currently mixed. And so now, again, this is in Early Access, but yeah, this just does not. I don't know, I. I have to
• 36:36
  imagine, quote here that says, I hope the game gets more exciting than making sandwiches and soup during the day.
• 36:43
  Yeah, this is not starting out well, but it's also one of those things where I'm just. I'm kind of delighted to see Peter's back at it. He's given us something new to sort of just scratch our heads at and. Yeah, but I, I didn't think that was like. I, I was just mainly amused by that. Like that he's back in the headlines and that, yeah, his game is just underwhelming people yet again.
• 37:15
  And I think Albion is actually a reference to Fable itself. So he's, It's.
• 37:21
  According to him, it's not the same Albion. It's a different album.
• 37:26
  Okay. Right.
• 37:28
  So, yeah, I mean, and there's other stuff that we, we, you know, we sort of like talked about, like the, the. The nothing burger that is the con. The, the non traversy surrounding pragmata because apparently it's too wholesome for people and the Internet's got to be a bunch of sick degenerate weirdos and that's super cool. So. Yeah, yeah, but we don't need to talk about that because I think. I think. I think this is a pretty good spot for us to land on, actually. It's just that I did want to close with just, you know, we could take maybe a minute or two here and just be like, April has just absolutely been in, like, you know, speaking of pragmata, and April has just been an absolute banger of a month. Just. I mean, it's one of those things where honestly, 2026 in general has been just a surprisingly good year for games. And I think April in particular has been, well, especially surprising. Like I expected. Again, you know, sort of looking at pragmata, I expected it to be good, but it's like it came out an Open Critic at a 90, and I think it's sitting in the high 80s at this point in time. The Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred, Seiros Tomodachi Life replaced Vampire crawlers. The Starfield PC PS5 port is on there. The. The Pokemon Champions game, which I know nothing about. But yeah, that stuff that has just like, those are the. The big ones. And then there's been Mouse PI in April, mid April here. Yeah. So there's just been a lot of really big. Like, April has been a bit of a heavyweight this year so far, and I'm here for it. Like, I'm, you know, it's a good time to enjoy video games.
• 39:40
  So.
• 39:41
  But. Well, anything. Any parting shots? Anything you want to hit before we sort of wrap it up here, or are you good to go?
• 39:52
  I think we covered all the news that's fit to print.
• 39:54
  Well, I. I think I would agree. And with that, folks, thanks for hanging out. And until next time, be good and do the things and we'll catch you on the. The Flibbity Jib.