WEBVTT

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KYLE: Kingdom Hearts IV put out 
this promotional collage this week.

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And I'm lookin' at this.
I see

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Mickey Mouse jumpin' around some 
chandeliers in a library and I think,

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"That's all I really need.
I don't need the rest."

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To me, sometimes, 
the Kingdom Hearts franchise is like

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living in this world where 
if you wanna buy a laser pointer,

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they only come packaged in, 
like, a Hanes 8-pack of socks.

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And so, like, [laughs] you just--

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You just buy the socks 
to get the laser poin-- [coughs]

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Full disclosure here, I got 
a bit of a frog in my throat this week.

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So tonight's plan is just to 
keep talking about video games

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for as long as my voice allows.

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So let's start with 
a major scoop from Bloomberg

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about how CEO and founder Jade Raymond 
has left Haven Studios.

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"What's Haven Studios?" you ask?

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They're making Fairgames,
the one with the monkey masks.

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Also, in the corresponding 
Resetera thread, Jason Schreier himself

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confirmed that are removing 
the dollar sign S from Fairgames.

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I think that's the right call but also
it's not like it's gonna change anything.

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It's like ordering a pizza topped with:

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and then saying, "Wait, hold on.
That's crazy.

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Hold the jelly."

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Anyway, the report itself is a bummer.
It says:

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So for the founder and CEO of the studio

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to leave at this point in Fairgames' 
development, not a great sign.

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I went back and read some articles 
from the launch press event Haven held

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back when it was first acquired.

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Canada's CTV was there, even.
It was a big deal.

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It's PlayStation's first Canadian studio.

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CTV ANCHOR: And its founder has become

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one of the most influential women 
in the industry.

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KYLE: So yeah, it's a feel-bad story that 
this game might not be turning out so well.

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However,

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there are elements of it 
that are maybe not feel-bad.

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While Fairgames is, yes, 
the monkey mask game,

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it's also the 3D AI-generated mask game.

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And as part of that studio launch event,

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when they were explaining 
what makes it unique,

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a big thing that was emphasized

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is how streamlined this studio's 
development pipeline was gonna be.

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Look at this:

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Cool.

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Uh-oh.

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Yeah, so because they didn't have 
much to talk about,

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when they were bringing these people in:

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it's mostly just to talk about

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how hypothetically impressive 
their technology's going to be.

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This is the funniest part to me, from the 
GamesIndustry.biz report of the event:

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[raspberry]

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Why are you [coughing]
showing that to people?

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3 years later, it sounds like they're really 
struggling to get this video game together,

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despite all of their AI technology.

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And I realize it's not rare for a video game 
to spend 5 months in development

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but do remember, back when Hermen Hulst 
was excited to announce that Haven would be

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joining the PlayStation Studios family,
he had this to say:

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At a certain point--
I'm not saying it's this point right now,

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but I do fear, maybe in the near future,

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we're gonna have to start questioning 
Hermen Hulst's taste in video games.

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Not his taste in jackets, obviously.

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But you have to wonder 
what he saw in Fairgames

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that isn't present today, 3 years later.

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And then just last week, 
a brand new studio

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received Hermen Hulst's 
potential kiss of death.

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Joining the PlayStation Studios's family:

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Now, before you get excited, LFG in this 
instance stands for Looking for Group.

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So do you remember last year 
when Bungie announced

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they were eliminating 17% 
of their studio's workforce?

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A little part of that announcement
is that there would be an incubation team

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that would become 
a brand new PlayStation Studios studio:

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Personally, I only remember it because, 
at the time, it was codenamed Gummybears.

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Well, you're looking at Gummybears 
right here.

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And what I find unique about 
this particular studio announcement

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is how specific and 
slightly charming it is. They say:

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It's almost like they're blissfully unaware 
of how high the stakes are here,

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that everything within 3 short years 
could just come crashing down.

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And it-- It's also interesting 
how they describe their game.

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Typically, you wouldn't say too much.

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Back in that old press release for Haven, 
they described what would become Fairgames as:

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And that's normal. However, 
here's how LFG describes their game:

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It says, "Frog-type games."
[laughs]

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Well, you can call me stupid because I'm 
actually looking forward to this game now.

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And then also in Bungie news (that I 
frankly don't have the vocal stamina for),

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an artist named Antireal pointed out 
that Marathon copied a lot of their art.

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Like COPIED it,
took the words right off of their art.

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And in the case of this stuff right here,

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it's, like, an essential part of the 
whole visual identity of their promos.

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And by the way, this is the third time 
in 2 years Bungie got caught doing this.

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And so, I think with 
Marathon coming out so soon,

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there's no way to remove the art.

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They're really just going to have to pay 
this artist, like they did for that Nerf gun.

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Bungie, tsk tsk.
You got off easy this week.

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Anyway, that's Delayed Input.
I'll be back next week, much healthier.

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Thanks for watching.

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I wonder if you're thinking, at this point,

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"Oh boy, he should've just not 
recorded a video this week."

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But how could I when it's 
time for your regular installment of:

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The topic of controversy 
this week is, of course,

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the changes made to Donkey Kong's 
best buddy, Diddy Kong.

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Diddy Kong, this week, 
received a brand-new render

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that is strangely similar to his old render
with a few small differences.

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Like, his tail's shorter.
He's got a little extra belly.

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You should also know he's got 
a little DK pin on his hat

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instead of the Nintendo logo,
which you know I personally appreciate.

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The Nintendo logo 
never should've been there.

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Yes, he has teeth now, 
which is not a big deal.

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Monkeys have teeth.
Diddy Kong always should've had teeth.

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But perhaps most strangely, as somebody 
was reviewing Diddy Kong's design,

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they said, "No more Sonic the Hedgehog 
eyes for Diddy Kong.

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I'm gonna need you to put 
one centimeter of monkey skin

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straight between his eyeballs,
thereby separating them."

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And the weird thing is, like,
I don't mind it.

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I think that these are 
all nice improvements.

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[monkey sound]

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[different monkey sound]

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[HONK]

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The most recent Switch 1 update 
changed a lot of the player icons.

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Someone on Reddit named thetripp 
pointed this out neatly.

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As you can see, mostly lighting changes,
the obvious DK changes,

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but also little weird ones,

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like bunching the plates on the 
back of Yoshi's head all together,

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even though that's not how Yoshi works.

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Anyway, I 'm just saying 
I think it's neat.

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I think it's neat that 
because the Switch 2 is coming out,

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somebody looked at all the old art 
and said,

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"We could really improve this here
and this here and this here.

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Diddy's gonna need a shorter tail.

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Dat's da good stuff."