Off The Console

This week on Off The Console, we’re diving deep into some of the biggest news in gaming and tech! The internet is buzzing with rumors about a brand new PlayStation 6 Portable that could be a serious competitor to the Nintendo Switch. But is Sony’s rumored handheld a Switch killer, or just a pipe dream?

We’re also talking about the “Silksong Effect” and how the surprise release date for the long-awaited indie game has caused other developers to delay their own titles to avoid direct competition. Plus, in a shocking turn of events, we discuss why so many developers at Gamescom 2025 were unable to get their hands on a Switch 2 dev kit. Did Nintendo actively discourage them? Find out!

Find this episode’s show notes, subscribe to our RSS feed, and engage on the Fediverse at: https://podcast.subscribeto.me/@OffTheConsoleShow/episodes/ep-44

Join @HiTechLoLife and @gardiner_bryant as we discuss this week’s hottest gaming and tech news.

00:00:00 Cold open

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🎮 The gang is BACK with a massive episode! We’re breaking down all the biggest news from Gamescom 2025, from the shocking Helldivers 2 x Halo crossover to the unbelievable confirmation that Silksong is actually real! 🤯

But that’s not all… Sony just dropped a bombshell, raising the price of every PlayStation 5 model. 💰 Is this the end of the sub-$500 PS5? We’ll tell you what this means for your wallet.

Plus, we’ve got the scoop on Valve’s new “Fremont” device, which is showing some insane performance gains over the Steam Deck. We’re also talking about the end of Splitgate 2, the White House investing in Intel, and a lawsuit that could make ad blockers illegal in Germany. All this and more on this week’s episode!

In this episode:

Gamescom 2025 Wrap-up: 🎮 The biggest announcements from Opening Night Live, including Sekiro: No Defeat, a new Lego Batman, and the return of Bubsy!

PS5 Price Hike: 💸 The PlayStation 5 just got more expensive. We break down the $50 price increase and its impact.

Valve’s “Fremont” Revealed: 💻 A new handheld from Valve is spotted on Geekbench, with a massive performance leap over the Steam Deck.

Splitgate Lives On: 🙌 The “Stop Killing Games” movement scores a win as Splitgate 1 lives on with peer-to-peer matches.

Marvel Rivals’ OCs: ❓ Marvel gives Netease the green light to create original characters for Marvel Rivals. But does anyone want them?

Nvidia’s Black Market: 🚫 Gamers Nexus investigates the smuggling of AI GPUs to China and gets a copyright strike from Bloomberg.

Intel’s New Allies: 🇺🇸 The White House and Softbank are investing big in Intel, but what does that mean for the future of x86?

The Worst Movie of 2025: 🎬 We talk about the hilarious trainwreck that is the new War of the Worlds film.

Mini SSDs Arrive: 💾 Biwin unveils a tiny new SSD that’s blazing fast, and we talk about which handhelds will use it.

Spigen Sues Trump: ⚖️ Trump’s new phone ad features images of other companies’ products, leading to a lawsuit from Spigen.

Ad Blockers at Risk: 🇩🇪 A new lawsuit in Germany could make ad blockers illegal, threatening the way we browse the web.

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In this episode, the hosts discuss a variety of topics ranging from personal experiences in Japan to the latest in gaming technology. Hi-Tech Lo-Life shares insights from his recent trip, including cultural observations and food experiences. The conversation shifts to the future of handheld gaming devices, particularly the GPD Win 5, and the importance of online safety in gaming communities like Roblox. The hosts emphasize the need for respect in cultural interactions and engage with their audience about their experiences and feedback. In this episode, the hosts discuss various pressing issues surrounding online safety, gaming culture, and the impact of economic factors on video game purchases. They delve into the challenges faced by platforms like YouTube and Roblox, the implications of payment processors on game availability, and the decline of PC gaming in Japan. The conversation also touches on the spending habits of Gen Z and the potential future of the gaming industry, particularly the rise of indie games amidst economic pressures. Additionally, the introduction of YouTube’s AI age verification system raises questions about privacy and safety for younger users.

#Gaming

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Link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/online-safety-act-explainer/online-safety-act-explainer

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/1748/text

https://old.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1mbmlz9/age_verification_in_the_uk_and_xboxs_ongoing/

https://support.spotify.com/uk/article/age-restricted-content-age-check/

https://www.tomsguide.com/ai/youtubes-new-ai-age-verification-is-coming-soon-heres-whats-going-to-chang

The UK recently passed a law that effectively forces online platforms to block access to content that may be harmful to “children” where children are likely to access it, with companies being fined £18 million or 10% of their annual turnover, whichever’s highest. It also allows the UK’s Office of Communications to explicitly block any website they want. The US is re-introducing a similar law called the Kids Online Safety Act (S.1748). One common theme is this idea that they need to protect children by forcing adults to submit verification to these companies…

This also affects gaming. Xbox in particular already has a blog statement about what this means for gamers in the UK. Players who claim to be over 18 will get constant nagging notifications asking them to verify. Also all social features on Xbox Live will be limited to those who actually verify their age starting next year. If you do not comply by then, then you’ll be limited to friend only interactions on Xbox.

Spotify has also implemented Age Checks for content marked at 18+. YouTube has ALSO joined in on this bandwagon too, and will implement this starting August 13th in the US as well. Is YouTube Dead? Is the internet dead?

Link: https://old.reddit.com/r/Steam/comments/1m9ly2j/so_i_got_a_response_from_visa/

https://www.thegamer.com/steam-gaming-industry-visa-payment-processors-adult-games-banned/

Gamers have been in a frenzy ever since Payment Processors and Collective Shout decided to go after adult games on Steam and Itch.io. Some gamers have even gotten responses from Visa, where they claim as long as said material being transacted is legal, then it’s good to go.

Link: https://variety.com/2025/digital/news/netflix-of-ai-amazon-invests-fable-showrunner-launch-1236471989/

https://www.showrunner.xyz/

Fable, an AI Startup has created the Showrunner service, which has been described as “Netflix for AI”, allowing users to effectively AI generate entire TV shows based on some set parameters. They are also in talks with major Hollywood studios and companies like Disney to license IP for use in this Showrunner AI platform. Some have posted clips of AI generated episodes on YouTube… and lemme tell you they do NOT look good.

Link: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/sony-sues-tencent-over-horizon-lookalike/1100-6533493/

Tencent’s “Light of Motriam” is VERY evocative of Sony’s Horizon franchise. From the robotic dinosaurs, to the ancient futuristic civilizations, to the juxtaposition of depicting indigenous lifestyles to said sci-fi elements. Sony is suing Tencent with claims that the game is such a blatant ripoff that it’s actually confused people into thinking that it’s the next Horizon game. What is worth mentioning is that Tencent apparently does NOT have shares in Sony in any capacity.

Link: https://github.com/stenzek/duckstation/commit/30df16cc767297c544e1311a3de4d10da30fe00c

Stenzek is fed up with Arch Users and has had it with their complaining to him even though it’s clearly user error. Step one was refusing to build in Arch environments. Step two is outright refusing to build in Linux support. Hasn’t happened just yet, but it’s highly disappointing. yd

Link:

| Rank | Company | Average yearly income (JPY and rough approximate in USD) |

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Link: https://itch.io/updates/update-on-nsfw-content

https://aftermath.site/waypoint-quit-steam-vice

https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/australian-anti-porn-group-claims-responsibility-for-steams-new-censorship-rules-in-victory-against-porn-sick-brain-rotted-pedo-gamer-fetishists-and-things-only-get-weirder-from-there/

Unlike Steam, ALL NSFW content has been deindexed from the site, meaning it will not show up in Browse or Search. This comes at the heel of the news that Steam had removed a ton of NSFW content for not meeting the standards set by Visa/MasterCard. Itch has also removed games from libraries with no chance of a refund.

Related News: Vice Writer Ana Valen published two articles about the Steam Payment Processor Controversy and who is behind it. Savage Ventures, Vice’s owner, demanded Valen remove said articles. She has since quit, alongside two OTHER writers too over what appears to be censorship of the topic.

Many have suggested Valve and the like not capitulate and instead offer stablecoin payments… but can such a thing really exist?

Link: https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/streaming/twitchs-most-popular-vtuber-leads-a-mass-exodus-from-her-agency-claiming-it-withheld-over-usd500k-in-charity-funds-this-entire-situation-has-broken-me/

VShojo is a VTuber Talent Agency host to some of the biggest VTubers (and Streamers) period, such as Ironmouse. And on the topic of Ironmouse, she was the first of what would be this mass exodus of talent due to VShojo withholding funds meant to go to Immune Deficiency Foundation (about $500,000+) despite Ironmouse being the one to raise all of these funds to go specifically to this charity.

In solidarity, MORE and more talent has decided to leave, including some OG members too. On top of that, some talents have revealed not being paid by VShojo for MONTHS.

Link: https://www.stopkillinggames.com/

They finally hit 1.4 Million! They SHOULD be safe unless a SIGNIFICANT part of the signatures are botted, which I HIGHLY doubt. As of the writing of this segment the exact count is 1,414,231

Link: https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/one-third-of-teens-use-ai-for-friendship-and-romantic-conversations-3230725/

https://character.ai/

Common Sense Media conducted research and discovered that 1/3 of all teens use AI chatbots to replace traditional human interaction for things like romance and friendships.

We should also try Character.ai for this one since that’s ONE such website where people can talk to AI facsimiles of fictional characters or real people.

Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2025/07/25/70-of-destiny-2s-top-contest-mode-clearing-raid-teams-cheated/

Destiny 2’s new expansion pack, The Edge of Fate, released and with every new expansion comes a new raid in the form of “The Desert Perpetual”, and with every new raid, a world’s first raid race. As per the article, of the top 100 teams to finish, 70 of those 100 were cheating in some form or another. Many of these could be gleamed by reviewing team stats, since raid completion stats are made public to everyone.

Link: https://www.thegamer.com/hunter-x-hunter-nen-x-impact-worst-reviewed-game-user-score-2025/

Move over Mindseye, a new worse reviewing game just released, and it’s the Hunter x Hunter fighting game!

→ No more $80 price tags? Microsoft’s pulling back after trying to follow Nintendo’s “charge what we want” model.

📖 Source: PC Gamer

Better grips, OLED, and more RAM?! Is this finally the Steam Deck challenger we wanted?

📖 Source: PC Gamer

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How much power is TOO MUCH power? Off The Console is back, and this week we get to see who has all the power! 🤪 Your hosts @gardiner_bryant , @games_revealed , and @HiTechLoLife are here to dissect the craziest news in gaming and tech!

Strap in for:

Join @Th3Brink, @HiTechLoLife and @GardinerBryant as we discuss this week’s hottest gaming and tech news.

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Link: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/nvidia-becomes-first-company-worth-4-trillion-what-to-know-rcna217721

Submitter: Hi-Tech Lo-Life

Nvidia was already one of the most valuable companies in the world and now it’s become THE most valuable company in the world thanks to its AI products.

Link: https://www.videogameseurope.eu/news/statement-on-stop-killing-games/

https://www.stopkillinggames.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5Ay%5FaOUcFw

Submitter: Hi-Tech Lo-Life

We actually spoke to Ross about this last week, but Video Games Europe (the lobbying group) has put out a statement surrounding the SKG movement. VGEU is helmed by many in the games industry and is backed by many of the BIGGEST publishers in gaming. Their main points of contention are as follows:

All of these points make sense if you maybe never read what SKG was actually about. As with any good game, the further we progress, the harder the enemies and bosses. We should also check on the petition progress during the show.

Link: https://www.thegamer.com/40-percent-of-2025-top-steam-games-from-double-a-indie-studios/

Submitter: Hi-Tech Lo-Life

About half of Steam’s top 20 games this year were NOT AAA. The list is as follows. Said Indie/AA games are marked as such.

| Game | Peak Playercount |

Link: https://www.resetera.com/threads/founder-of-arkane-studios-i-think-gamepass-is-an-unsustainable-model-that-has-been-increasingly-damaging-the-industry-for-a-decade-impacts-sales.1236546/

https://insider-gaming.com/game-pass-killed-by-first-party-development-costs/

Submitter: Hi-Tech Lo-Life

Arkane founder Raphael Colantonio has publicly stated that they believe Gamepass is unsustainable. Gamepass has been found to lose up to 80% “premium sales” for games on the service. Gamepass’s main selling point is that First Party Xbox games come day 1. But some contrary sources suggest that Gamepass IS sustainable.

Link: https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/knowing-steam-players-are-hoarders-explains-why-you-give-valve-that-30-percent-analyst-tells-devs-you-get-access-to-a-bunch-of-drunken-sailors-who-spend-money-irresponsibly/

Submitter: Hi-Tech Lo-Life

Games Industry Analyst Chris Zukowski explicitly mentions why having access to Steam is so valuable. It’s the fact that people ON steam will just, BUY games and never play them. Drunken sailors with more money than sense! You don’t have THAT on Epic!

Link: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/call-of-duty/call-of-duty-ww2-pulled-from-pc-following-reports-of-remote-code-exploit-trolling-players-with-notepad-pop-ups-pc-shutdowns-and-desktop-wallpaper-of-a-lawyer/

https://x.com/wrioh75753/status/1940597447467979053

Submitter: Hi-Tech Lo-Life

Remote Code Execution attacks are considered the holy grail of hacks and arguably the worst sort of exploit outside of just having physical access to the hardware in question. CoDWW2 is not the only game to have suffered a RCE attack though. Dark Souls 3 suffered one such an exploit a few years ago, prompting Bandai Namco to shut the servers down for an extended period of time. Thankfully the exploits seem to have been fixed and the online is totally playable now. But even during then DS3 was still playable from start to finish offline.

Link: https://x.com/altersgame/status/1939707458152448118

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/blue-archive-pc-release-appears-to-break-steam-rules/1100-6533084/

https://imgur.com/a/Hd10zoJ

Submitter: Hi-Tech Lo-Life

The Alters was caught with AI generated content in the game, but without a proper AI disclosure section on the Steam Page. If not enforced, this WILL cause issues especially with other devs attempting to hide the fact that some assets are AI generated. One instance was supposed to be a placeholder asset while most of the other instances of AI were AI powered localizations. Something that would DEFINTIELY warrant disclosure.

The OTHER major rulebreaker is in fact Nexon with review manipulation of a gacha game we’ve already talked about once on this channel. Blue Archive was hosting a review event. Hitting 10k reviews means players get rewarded! The post about the event has since been deleted, but it is worth mentioning. I am curious if and how Valve will reprimand these developers.

Link: https://www.ign.com/articles/capcom-cancels-lecture-on-monster-hunter-wilds-optimization-amid-harassment-concerns

Submitter: Hi-Tech Lo-Life

Capcom cancels lecture about optimizing MHW at the upcoming CEDEC 2025 conference in Japan. There is no cited reason for this cancellation, but this comes amidst concerns about harassment and threats towards staff in regards to MHW’s gameplay and PC performance. I do find it kind of ironic that Capcom would host a lecture about optimizing arguably one of the most unoptimized games to release this year. But how much of it actually IS unoptimization vs being too advanced for modern hardware?

Link: https://old.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/1lt2eog/paprium_sega_genesis_is_now_emulated/

Submitter: Hi-Tech Lo-Life

Paprium is a beat-em-up released for the Sega Genesis game released in 2020, which was crowd funded all the way back in 2012. Many backers have not gotten their physical Sega Genesis copy, but arguably the worst thing about this game is its copy protection hardware built in, which is unheard of for homebrew games made for older retro systems. This is effectively DRM and has caused issues preventing you from emulating it properly with standard Emulators. It’s even caused issues with some Sega Genesis models and even FPGA recreations like the Mega SG. Thankfully the game has finally been cracked and can now be preserved for all, which still requires a special emulator core available in RetroArch. Of course, all of this could have been avoided had they released it on other consoles and PC like their prior Sega Genesis game “Pier Solar and the Great Architects”.

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In this episode, we discuss the Stop Killing Games movement, which aims to protect consumers from the practice of game publishers shutting down online services without warning. The conversation delves into the legal challenges faced by the movement, the implications of consumer rights in gaming, and the potential for future legislation to improve the preservation of digital games. The case of Anthem serves as a focal point for the discussion, highlighting the need for end-of-life policies in the gaming industry. In this conversation, the hosts discuss various topics related to the gaming industry, including the uncertain future of live service games, the de-Googling movement, and the ongoing debate between Linux and Windows for gaming. They also touch on PewDiePie’s shift towards self-hosting, the implications of recent Xbox layoffs, and the controversial use of AI in workplace settings. Additionally, they explore Crunchyroll’s AI translation issues and Nexus Mods’ new age verification requirements for adult content, highlighting the evolving landscape of gaming and technology.

#gaming #StopKillingGames #Podcast #GamingPodcast #ConsumerRights #VideoGamePreservation #Anthem #GamingLegislation #OnlineGames #GameShutdowns #GamingIndustry #EUInitiative #LiveServiceGames #DeGoogling #Linux #PewDiePie #XboxLayoffs #AIInGaming #Crunchyroll #NexusMods

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Link: https://www.stopkillinggames.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIfRLujXtUo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9ahH6HrtTc

Stop Killing Games has yet to hit its goal yet the deadline is approaching. MANY attribute this to PirateSoftware, a content creator and part owner of an indie publisher, railing hard against it with what many consider to be a misinformation laden video.

Link: https://bsky.app/profile/georgebsocial.bsky.social/post/3lsi27oqdos2f

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-24/microsoft-plans-major-job-cuts-at-xbox-gaming-division?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc1MDc3Mjc0NiwiZXhwIjoxNzUxMzc3NTQ2LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJTWUQ0VkxEV1JHRzAwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJCMUVBQkI5NjQ2QUM0REZFQTJBRkI4MjI1MzgyQTJFQSJ9.iMkVuxzB6m6hT_Rpwa-NQCTCvDapSt1DaRfpnGaqUSw&leadSource=uverify+wall

Reports suggest that 1-2 thousand people may be laid off, and entire studios killed.

Link: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/sony-faces-dutch-lawsuit-over-artificially-high-playstation-prices

A Consumer Group claims that Dutch consumers pay too much for digital games. The foundation has discovered that consumers on average pay 47% more for digital than physical titles. This combined with Sony’s push towards a Digital Only future means that Sony is pushing towards overcharging.

Link: https://steamcommunity.com/games/1144200/announcements/detail/526472884483260568

Ready or Not is about to be released on consoles… but the PC port is also getting some changes in line with the console ports, including censored imagery. They maintain that this was necessary to facilitate crossplay and because maintaining multiple versions of a game is difficult. Ready or Not does contain a lot of imagery and themes that are quite disturbing and are equally disturbingly realistic. Some of the changes include changes to gore, nudity, and other disturbing imagery involving ingame children.

Link: https://www.resetera.com/threads/nintendo-updates-mario-kart-worlds-online-removes-the-only-guaranteed-way-to-play-normal-3-lap-races-with-randoms.1228638/

People REALLY dislike the intermission courses, which are courses that have to driving from one course to another. Players online would select the “random” course option which was a semi-effective way to guarantee playing traditional 3-lap courses. Now Nintendo has patched this and people REALLY don’t like the intermission courses.

Link: https://www.gamepressure.com/newsroom/steam-is-dealing-with-spam-valves-platform-has-been-flooded-with/zb811a

https://kindanice.itch.io/dire-decks

Steam is dealing with a glut of spam and games stolen from Itch.io. The Switch eShop also has a similar issue. The big question is how do you deal with it?

Link: https://store.steampowered.com/

What are YOU buying?

Link: https://forum.nexon.com/bluearchive-en/board_view?board=3028&thread=2982148&allBoard=1

Visual Novel fans have suffered due to Steam’s inconsistent approval policies when it comes to Visual Novels and other anime adjacent games.

Link: https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/f44-change-proposal-drop-i686-support-system-wide/156324

Fedora proposed the removal of 32-bit library support from their distro. This would have serious knock-on effects for the likes of Steam and also Bazzite. The founder of Bazzite Kyle Gospodnetich left a comment saying this proposal would mean the end of Bazzite and the lack of Steam next. After some discussion, they were able to come up with some solutions to the problems posed by the proposal.

I spoke with Kyle this week about the news. We ended up having a conversation 45 min conversation. He laid to rest many of the myths about this proposal.

It looks to me like Bazzite is the fastest growing Fedora-based distro, with over 1,000 unique contributors, and over 700 TB of image downloads (not including torrent distribution).

Link: https://www.theverge.com/news/692648/microsoft-bsod-black-screen-of-death-color-change-official

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Theme song composed by Gardiner Bryant

In this episode, Russ from ⁨@RetroGameCorps⁩ joins us to discuss the latest trends in gaming, including Xbox’s grand ambitions for the future, new handhelds including the new ROG Xbox Ally, Nintendo Switch 2, and even a potential PlayStation handheld? We also talk about the rise of AI in places where we may not necessarily want them!

Join @Th3Brink, @HiTechLoLife and @GardinerBryant as we discuss this week’s hottest gaming and tech news.

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Theme song composed by Gardiner Bryant