The Bobby Blackwolf Show

I was on Jury Duty on an 8 day case. Nothing about video games and nothing really juicy, but it was a drain on me.

Amazon is shutting down parts of Luna, taking away people's access to games they paid for, and not offering any refunds.

The indie developer behind Papers, Please has come out and stated that they will no longer talk about new projects because they are afraid that AI will take them and release something worse before he can be finished.

Nintendo is deleting Super Mario Maker 2 levels because they contain hashtags for Mario Maker communities - claiming it is advertising and against the Terms of Service.

A chatter says that they miss Video Games Live - but Video Games Live has several shows this year, including one this month.

Then we talk to Jamie from OLR IIDX about cats and game streaming services.

Stormgate, an indie online multiplayer game, is shutting down its online servers because their provider, Hathora, has been purchased by Fireworks AI who are turning the online game servers into AI servers.

Rec Room is shutting down in June, despite having over 150 million players.

Snapchat's parent company has purchased some of Rec Room's assets and hired some of the talent to help them foster an online community.

Then we talk to Jamie from OLR about April Fools jokes that didn't fool us this year.

EverQuest Legends has been announced - a version of EverQuest that goes back to 1999 but adds features to allow the entire game to be soloable.

Sony is increasing the PS5 price by $100 to $150 due to the AI infrastructure roll out taking all of the RAM and storage away from consumer products.

Epic Games lays off 1000 Fortnite developers, including leads who were influential in Fortnite's continued success, because their legal fights with Apple and Google took more money than they thought.

Then we talk to Jamie from OLR about our desired nostalgia bait.

My first job was at Blockbuster Video, so I had to try Retro Rewind: Video Store Simulator.

The Metaverse is no longer in VR - according to Meta - they are moving Horizon Worlds off of VR and onto mobile.

Nvidia announced DLSS 5 and a vocal part of the internet rallied against it...but what about the majority that aren't terminally online?

Bethesda reacted to the reactions and said they would be looking at the tech more before implementing it.

Then we talk to DarkSakura about generative AI and where it might be able to be used ethically.

We do start talking about retro computing with the Commodore 64 Ultimate - especially navigating BBS's in 2026 and how they differ from the standard internet we are used to today.

"Major Nelson" Larry Hryb, formerly of Xbox and Unity, has joined Commodore as a Community Development Advisor.

Zen Studios announced that their line of Zen Pinball software is being renamed, and that World Cup Soccer is being delisted at the end of March.

EA has laid off a number of developers that worked on Battlefield 6 despite it breaking records - reportedly because it didn't break the records by enough.

Then we talk to Jamie from OLR about why you should play World Cup Soccer Pinball.

I finally got my Commodore 64 Ultimate Starlight Edition! It's probably the best thing I'll buy all year, but it might not be for you.

Valve say that the Steam Machine is still coming this year, just a little bit later than they had hoped.

Nintendo is suing the US Government over the 2025 tariffs that affected the Switch 2 launch.

Then we talk to Jamie about FPGA based recreations of retro hardware.

The Muppet*Vision 3D experience from the Disney parks is coming to the Apple Vision Pro - and other VR devices.

A game archival site is going to go offline because it cannot afford to stay online due to various factors including the increasing cost of RAM and storage due to the global AI infrastructure roll-out.

The State of New York is suing Valve over their use of loot boxes, possibly hoping to set a legal precedent to go after larger corporations with deeper pockets and better lawyers.

Then we talk to Jamie from OLR about loot boxes and the "gaming" industry.

I was at Dice & Diversions and played a bunch of board games, and I talk about two of them - Magical Athlete, and Draft & Write Records.

The Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack's Virtual Boy collection has released, and I did buy the $100 piece of plastic to get the headaches I remember.

There was a shakeup at Xbox - CEO Phil Spencer retired, President Sarah Bond resigned, and Asha Sharma, a former AI executive, is now CEO.

Then we talk to Jamie about the Xbox shakeup and how we can be cautiously optimistic - IF they learn from their mistakes.

At the Sony State of Play, there was a new Digital Eclipse collection released for Rayman's 30th Anniversary - and I didn't get it on launch, going back on my word that their collections were now day one purchases.

Steam Decks are now out of stock and Valve doesn't know when they'll be able to manufacture more. This is most likely because of the RAM shortage because AI companies have already ordered more RAM than factories can produce right now.

Because of this, the Steam Machine and Steam Frame are also delayed and will not launch in the first quarter of 2026 like originally announced.

Riot Games has laid off the majority of the team that built 2KXO two weeks after the game left early access. What is the actual plan for live service games to keep their teams after releasing the core product?

Then we talk to Jamie at OLR about the new Stern Pinball release - Pokemon.

I spend the first part of the show excited about my Commodore 64 Ultimate shipping this month and talk about my favorite C64 game as a kid that most people had never heard of - Agent USA. (It wasn't that great.)

There is a class action lawsuit in the UK against Valve over their 30% fee on every transaction, and I explain why Valve is the target right now and not any of the other storefronts that also have a 30% fee.

Sony has patented a controller that has movable buttons on a touchscreen, and I talk about why it will be great as an option, but not a replacement for tactile buttons.

Then we talk to OLR about accessible controllers.