I'm thinking Fairgames might not be Sony's next hit - Delayed Input

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

And I'm lookin' at this.
I see

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

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

To me, sometimes,
the Kingdom Hearts franchise is like

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

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

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

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

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

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

for as long as my voice allows.

So let's start with
a major scoop from Bloomberg

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

"What's Haven Studios?" you ask?

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

Also, in the corresponding
Resetera thread, Jason Schreier himself

confirmed that are removing
the dollar sign S from the Fairgames.

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

It's like ordering a pizza topped with:

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

Hold the jelly."

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

So for the founder and CEO of the studio

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

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

back when it was first acquired.

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

It's PlayStation's first Canadian studio.

CTV ANCHOR: And its founder has become

one of the most influential women
in the industry.

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

However,

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

While Fairgames is, yes,
the monkey mask game,

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

And as part of that studio launch event,

when they were explaining
what makes it unique,

a bit thing that was emphasized

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

Look at this:

Cool.

Uh-oh.

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

when they were bringing these people in:

it's mostly just to talk about

how hypothetically impressive
their technology's going to be.

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

[raspberry]

[while coughing] Why are you
showing the people?

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

despite all of their AI technology.

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

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

joining the PlayStation family,
he had this to say:

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

but I do fear, maybe in the near future,

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

Not his taste in jackets, obviously.

But you have to wonder
what he saw in Fairgames

that isn't present today, 3 years later.

And then just last week,
a brand new studio

received Hermen Hulst's
potential kiss of death.

Joining the PlayStation Studios's family:

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

So do you remember last year
when Bungie announced

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

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

that would become
a brand new PlayStation Studios studio:

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

Well, you're looking at Gummybears
right here.

And what I find unique about
this particular studio announcement

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

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

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

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

Typically, you wouldn't say too much.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And in the case of this stuff right here,

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

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

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

there's no way to remove the art.

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

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

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

Thanks for watching.

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

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

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

The topic of controversy
this week is, of course,

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Nintendo logo
never should've been there.

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

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

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

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

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

straight between his eyeballs,
thereby separating them."

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

I think that these are
all nice improvements.

[monkey sound]

[different monkey sound]

[HONK]

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

Someone on Reddit named thetripp
pointed this out neatly.

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

But also little weird ones

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

even though that's not how Yoshi works.

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

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

somebody looked at all the old art
and said,

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

Diddy's gonna need a shorter tail.

Dat's da good stuff."