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While mourning the passing of Yu-Gi-Oh creator Kazuki Takahashi, David Radd engages in tedious robot fights in The Great Battle IV, plays the much better (if incredibly safe) Super Bomerman 4, and deals with wiseguys right out of central casting in Mafia II: Definitive Edition.  Meanwhile, Tuesday plays some Aliens Fireteam Elite, where they plumbing the absolute depths of Alien series lore and plays some more Fire Emblem: Three Houses where they want to marry Edelgard and become war crimes: the couple.  In news, there's announcements around NFT games and consoles while sales in the sector plummet, Blizzard picks up developer Proletariat to help finish the latest World of Warcraft expansion, a U.K. regulator examines the proposed buyout by Microsoft of Activision Blizzard and Blizzcon will apparently return in 2023.  Google settlted a class action lawsuit with developers and the EU Digital Markets Act could open the closed platforms on phones.  Finally, ReedPop announced that it will work with the ESRB to produce E3 2023... which leads us to the SNGP topic on the troubled expo.  David and Tuesday go over the pros and cons of E3 and give their concluding opinion on the annual gaming event.

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While he didn't spend a second watching the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 direct, David Radd did play more of Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn to find out how broken Ike is once he promotes.  Tuesday had a similar experience playing Fire Emblem: Three Houses, finding out how comfortable Edelgard was with war crimes, and was thankful that weapons didn't immediate break in Fire Emblem: Three Hopes; they sadly weren't able to Morb in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3.  In news, a poll shows more game workers are open to unionization, while Microsoft and the CWA enter into a labor agreement while Activision's board is reelected (including Bobby Kotick) though shareholders also voted in favor of an annual abuse report.  Meanwhile, a U.K. watchdog says that 40 percent of Nintendo Joy-cons are affected by drift and the NPD U.S. sales tumbled 19 percent year-on-year in May.  In this week's SNGP topic,  David and Tuesday dive into Anthem and discuss the promising combat, the multiple bugs and the unfortunate story in BioWare's failed attempt at a service game.

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 In this special off-week episode, David Radd and Tuesday talk about the Xbox and Bethesda Showcase, including the Starfield demonstration,  the major reveals of the Capcom Showcase and the big announcements out of the Final Fantasy VII 25th anniversary stream. 

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Not willing to inflict Diablo Immortal on himself, David Radd was instead wrapping up Ghost of Tsushima: Director's Cut with visions of the past and notes that Sothe promoted but is still exposes his midriff in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn.  Meanwhile, Tuesday is wondering how anyone plays the Fencer in Earth Defense Force 4.1 and raises some Atomicrops to face the creatively named Corpse-a-Copia.  In SNGP news, 18 consumer groups in Europe and 15 in the U.S. call for greater regulatory action on loot boxes, while the ESA insists that E3 will return in 2023 and Annapurna will have their own event in July and Square Enix will have a brief stream in mid-June, but Ubisoft won't have their usual Forward event.   In labor news, Keywords Edmonton votes for unionization and Acitivsion recognizes the Raven QA union because they are legally forced to.  Finally, Dragon Age 4 has the official subtitle of Dreadwolf, and the series will be getting an animated show.  For the SNGP topic, after talking briefly about Devolver Digital Marketing Countdown to Marketing, they recount the big news coming out of Summer Game Fest 2022, including all the news, updates and major announcements.

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In this special off-week episode, David Radd and Tuesday talk exclusively about the PlayStation State of Play before Summer Games Fest 2022, discussing The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2: Retribution,  Season: A Letter to the Future,  Stray,  Horizon Call of the Mountain, Eternights,   Final Fantasy XVI,  Rollerdrome,  The Callisto Protocol, Resident Evil 4 and Street Fighter 6, all of which were part of the event.

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As Keiji Inafune throws away his remaining scraps of respectability with rip-off Mega Man X artwork being sold as NFTs, David Radd is waiting for the CPU to take turns in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn and swiping right (to wipe off the blood) in Ghost of Tsushima.  Tuesday meanwhile has been playing the cross between a Rogue-lite and Smash TV in DeathRun TV in addition to Eiyuden Chronicles: Rising, which has a character they lovingly think of as "Guts the Kangaroo."  In news, Activision Blizzard continues to deal with employee complaints and a newly formed union, while Microsoft says the acquisition is moving smoothly while dealing with accusations of mismanagement on their own.  Sony meanwhile, reveals parts of their future plans for PlayStation as well as more details for PlayStation Plus.  Finally, sales for the month of April 2022 show increased PS5 supplies and good results or Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, Switch Sports, Horizon Forbidden West, and of course, Elden Ring.  In the topic, David and Tuesday break down different qualities attributed to Souls-likes and reach consensus on what they think are the most important factors and what are non-factors.

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Still mourning the passing of Berserk author Kentaro Miura a year later, David Radd finished reading the manga and returned to Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn only to be reminded why he took a break and risked it all in Ghost of Tsushima's lethal mode.  Meanwhile, Tuesday keeps on talking to the same NPCs like a crazy person in order to advance the story in Famicom Detective Club: The Missing Heir and feels an almost pathological need to use a gun in Call of Juarez: Gunslinger.  In news, Embracer buys most of the assets of former Eidos, including Crystal Dynamics and Tomb Raider, from Square Enix for only $300 million while the company looks to invest in the blockchain (an investment that might not seem as good as it once was).  Sony undershot their PS5 sales estimates, but looks to rebound in the coming year even as chip shortages continue, while Nintendo sells over 107.6 million Switches and they have continued sales success, including Metroid Dread being perhaps the most successful in the series so far.  Activision deals with flagging Call of Duty sales, anti-union messaging before a key vote and a lawsuit from the state of New York.  In the topic, David and Tuesday discuss the development of Kingdom Hearts, which seems to be mostly the byproduct of Tetsuya Nomura doing whatever he wanted with the game design, asking Hikaru Utada out of the blue to do a song or the game (she did) and creating one of Square Enix's most enduring and popular franchises.

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While wondering if this podcast will get blocked in the Russian Federation,  David Radd wrapped up his time in Loop Hero where he broke through after hours of static progress and also played Yakuza Kiwami 2 which has THAT scene with grown men dressed up as babies.  Meanwhile, Tuesday was disappointed to find that Maneater was not Dolphin May Cry and returned to Hades only to find it was perfectly OK.  In news, Microsoft's Xbox division reported record non-holiday quarter results among other news bits, there are apparently no stated plans for Bobby Kotick after the Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard while that company sees sales and engagement tumble, NPD reports sales are down as the PS5 struggles to meet demand, and Square Enix President Yosuke Matsuda is still gung ho for NFT products and Yuji Naka sues Square Enix over Balan Wonderworld.  In the SNGP topic, David and Tuesday wrap up their discussion of Disco Elysium - The Final Cut, where everything that was said in a hangover riddled stupor came back to haunt Harry, discovered the first death is in the heart and also solved the murder.

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While he hasn't been stealing tanks in his tractor, David Radd has been playing some Virtua Fighter 2 and winning against Akira using a vertical suplex to get ring outs and playing Sega's wonderfully creative arcade hit Virtual On: Cyber Troopers.  Meanwhile, Tuesday tries to resolve their nostalgia for both old Star Wars and Lego games in Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga while enjoying Nier Replicant ver.1.22474487139... which will never not be referred to as  Nier Replicant Long Number.  In news, Fortnight raises $144 Million for Ukraine charities and World of Tanks closes its Russian and Belarus studios.  Epic is teaming with Lego for a Metaverse game, releases two technically impressive Unreal Engine 5 demos and sees a $1 billion investment from Sony Corp.  In Activision Blizzard news, the company appointed a new Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, sees the SOC Investment Group recommend against voting for the Microsoft acquisition, sees further scrutiny from the FTC over said acquisition, completes the merger of Vicarious Visions into Blizzard, makes all Q&A workers full time (except those who have looked to form a union), and has accusations that the California Governor's office is interfering in the state investigation.  In the second exhausting block of news, Ubisoft says more NFTs coming to their games, Sega says the "Super Game" may be multiple Games and use NFTs while a report states that metaverse games struggle to retain players.  For the topic, David and Tuesday look back on the launch of the Switch, the events that lead to its creation and their early impressions of the system.

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While he reads about the war in Ukraine, David wishes there was a dedicated jump button in the Cold War arcade game Rush'n Attack, can't quite get the dog to catch the Frisbee in Wii Sports Resort, and is working hard to get the systems in Loop Hero to work for him.  Meanwhile, Tuesday hasn't seen a prettier Switch game than Kirby and The Forgotten Land and finds that the voice acting in the Trials of Mana remake is still terrible.  In news, ESA confirms that the digital version of E3 2022 has also been cancelled, Nintendo confirms that the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel has been delayed until early 2023, SIE President and CEO Jim Ryan gives the details of the new PlayStation Plus tiers, and Activision is settling one of the government sexual assault lawsuits, is expanding their Beenox Studio in Montreal and faces open criticism of the potential buyout by Microsoft by four U.S. senators.   For the SNGP topic, David and Tuesday examine the history of labor relations in video gaming in the U.S., from the contentious anti-union era into when it was birthed, the "EA Spouse" incident that publicly raised the issue of crunch in the industry, the affect of the SAG-AFTRA strike, and recent accusations of sexism and abuse that have led to fresh cries for unionization in the industry.

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