Colette & Matt Have Entered the Chat

Hundreds of NSFW games were removed from Steam last week after Valve quietly changed some policies around adult content. But journalists realized it was actually the payment processors — Visa and Mastercard — who refused to complete transactions around certain kinds of porn.

Digging deeper, it was revealed that a small Australian conservative activism group was taking a victory lap around Steam's porn purge, all in the name of "protecting children" from "harmful content." And they are targeting Itch.io next, which has already de-indexed many adult games.

So how did a tiny group of pearl-clutchers convince two multi-national banking conglomerates to censor the world's largest video game marketplace?

Games journalist Ana Valens attempted to answer this with two reported articles on Vice's gaming site Waypoint. But those articles were taken down by Vice's corporate owners, prompting Ana (and many of her colleagues) to immediately quit.

This week, Ana joins Matt to discuss this legally and ethically complex issue, why banks can now decide what art we're allowed to see on the Internet, the pressing threat for the LGBTQ+ community, and what we can (actually) do about it.

If this conversation inspired you to take action, please discuss it in our Discord, check out the links below, and follow Ana's work:

Both archived articles: https://archive.ph/USxe6 + https://archive.ph/x5cGQ

https://yellat.money/

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"Donkey Kong Bananza" lets you go anywhere and punch anything, with almost no limitations, cooldowns, or stamina meters. Everything about it is bad game design.

So what makes it such a perfect video game? Matt unpacks the joy in DK's ridiculous feel and physics.

Plus: The difficulty ramps up as Colette approaches the end of "Expedition 33," and we discuss what it feels like to be cremated (aka living in Atlanta in the summer).

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Nine years after its initial release, "Stardew Valley" has dethroned "Portal 2" as the highest-rated game on Steam. We discuss this huge achievement and the business of providing long-term value to players in a world of short-term thinking.

But it's impossible to kick off the pod without discussing Microsoft's latest round of layoffs, with 9,000 people out of the job, many in the Xbox division. This has led to the cancelation of many promising games. The looming specter of AI certainly plays a role here.

And speaking of people losing their jobs, the leaders of "Subnautica's" studio Unknown Worlds were recently told to kick rocks by their parent company Krafton, right before the release of one of the most-wishlisted video games of all time: "Subnautica 2." The community is livid, and new revelations hint at some unsavory details.

And Colette shares an update on her progress in "Expedition 33."

https://www.theverge.com/news/697125/microsoft-xbox-layoffs-2025

https://www.dexerto.com/stardew-valley/stardew-valley-dethrones-valve-classic-as-steams-top-rated-game-3224023/

https://www.wired.com/story/video-games-voice-actors-strike-over-artificial-intelligence/

https://gamerant.com/subnautica-2-founder-statement/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-07-09/krafton-delays-subnautica-2-game-ahead-of-250-million-payout

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We're taking the week off, but hope you'll check out Matt's new improv comedy podcast for kids and families!

Listen to the first episode here, share it with the kids in your life, and subscribe wherever you get your favorite podcasts:

https://www.talesfromthecloudsea.com/

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"Overwhelmingly Negative" describes every time you turn on the news, AND Capcom's 7th best-selling game of all time.

Despite selling 10 million copies at $70 each, "Monster Hunter Wilds" has officially crossed over to "Overwhelmingly Negative" reviews on Steam, an extraordinary achievement reserved only for the crappiest games and developers. So where did it all go wrong for Capcom's flagship franchise?

Plus: A creep-tastic horror game for our age of paranoia, the return of "Lost in Random," why Matt uninstalled "Expedition 33," and a whole lot of fish sex.

Items discussed in today's episode:

https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/monster-hunter-wilds-reviews-hit-overwhelmingly-negative-on-steam-players-decry-the-games-poor-endgame-and-pc-performance

https://www.videogamer.com/news/dune-awakening-is-funcoms-fastest-selling-game-ever/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3180070/No_Im_not_a_Human/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2564520/Lost_in_Random_The_Eternal_Die/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2581950/Tiny_Aquarium_Social_Fishkeeping/

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Holy f$@ing s&!*balls, stop whatever you're doing and play this demo and then get sad because you're done with the demo and you wish the game was out DEAR GOD WHEN WILL IT COME OUTTt

We discuss our new obsession with BALL x PIT.

Also, that new Donkey Kong game looked fine, but then they showed more of it and OMG GIVE IT TO ME NOW.

Plus: Matt launched a new podcast for kids and he swears it's really good.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2062430/BALL_x_PIT/

https://www.talesfromthecloudsea.com/

Goodbye.

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Konami had their own games showcase this week, which no one knew or cared about, until...

...a remake of the original Silent Hill was announced. Colette screams into her microphone with the Blooberific details.

And Matt shares his impressions of the Switch 2 hardware, user experience, GameChat, and of course the beefiest Mario Kart game ever.

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aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAahhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhh

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The most popular video game in the world this week isn't Fortnite or Minecraft. In fact, you've probably never heard of it.

But 9 million people were playing it concurrently. For context, Steam had 11.5 million concurrent players across ALL GAMES that same day.

So, WTF is going on with "Grow a Garden," a game inside Roblox that a teenager whipped up in 3 days?

Also: Cloud streaming just got slightly better on your Steam Deck, and Colette sends an update from the front lines of Expedition 33.

Articles discussed in this episode:

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/survival-crafting/a-roblox-farming-game-made-by-a-teenager-in-like-three-days-had-8-9-million-players-online-at-the-same-time-steam-peaked-at-11-5-million-across-all-games-on-the-same-day/

https://overkill.wtf/native-geforce-now-app/

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Fortnite's current Star Wars season is a blast, and a chance encounter with Darth Vader allows you to converse with him via voice chat. His responses are synthesized with AI, and the voice you hear is that of James Earl Jones, whose estate agreed to the AI cloning.

The idea of a video game NPC responding to your actions and talking to you with context (rather than canned responses) is an exciting prospect for the future of games. But in this case, there are two problems:

Players and streamers immediately figured out how to get Vader to drop F-bombs and say racial slurs. And while the voice was generated with permission, it comes at a time when actors unions like SAG-AFTRA are in active negotiations with video game companies about the use of AI and the future security of their jobs.

The result has been an uproar about the ethics, legality, and future of the medium.

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