The VGBees Podcast

This week, John, Niki, and (for about an hour, at least) Lotus ponder what makes a good games outlet name. Also, perhaps more importantly, Epic's full-throttle commitment to AI game production, Grand Theft Auto VI's potential PC release in Q1 2027, and more Ubisoft studio closures.

00:00:00 Intro & The Pepsi Challenge

00:11:00 Chris Kerr's Vertical Slice launches (and a very, very silly detour about race)

00:25:30 Epic goes all-in on AI; delays Marvel/Star Wars game

00:34:46 Grand Theft Auto VI reported to get Q1 2027 PC release

00:46:43 ESA requests Anbernic to be listed as "superfake;" for some reason tells everyone about FitGirl

00:50:56 More Ubisoft layoffs and studio closures

00:58:22 Why Big Walk isn't on Xbox

01:00:22 Nidhogg, yes Nidhogg, got a big new update this week

01:02:44 How do you deal with feeling deeply responsible for your direct reports at work?

01:09:20 How Fortnite has finally become the parody of itself casual observers have long said it to be

01:36:14 Star Wars Galactic Racer is the perfect size in the perfect form

02:10:50 Why do discussions of systemic issues sometimes get in the way of laying clear individual blame on bad actors?

02:12:42 Why do basketball players seem to be happier than football players?

02:25:45 What would cause this podcast to balloon to four hours?

02:27:28 How would you deal with a sudden shift to the metric system?

02:29:10 Is Biddy Blas a breakout star or an overplayed meme?

02:31:43 How do we feel about little tomatoes?

02:33:35 New review & outro

Thanks for listening!

Please leave us a review! We'll read it on the show and it helps us out a lot.

VGBees is ad-free, AI-free, and completely supported by you! https://vgbees.com/join

VGBees is a weekly games media podcast hosted by Niki, John, and Lotus.

This week, Lotus, Niki, and John dove very deep into the surprisingly busy week of games news, including Kotaku's fascinating report about Double Fine's union misfire, Bobby Kotick joining the Skydance Board, and Star Wars Zero Company dev returning more than have their previously furloughed workers.

00:00:00 Intro & vaccine misinformation

00:12:30 Skydance's new games division

00:20:25 Skydance's new Board includes Bobby Kotick

00:26:59 Kotaku's explosive report about Double Fine's failed unionization attempt

00:58:05 NBA 2K25 to be delisted and servers shut down

01:18:38 Gamestop inflating price of pre-owned PlayStation 5 Pros

01:28:50 Wizards of the Coast union is expanding

01:30:07 Bit Reactor returns more than half of furloughed workers to company

01:33:15 Xbox creates new transmedia division XP

01:40:30 Lego Party is the best one of these around

01:43:40 Skate is even weirder than it was when it launched

01:51:50 Halloween costume plans or ideas this year?

01:53:55 Parking is $2 but validated parking is free...are you getting validated?

01:58:20 What would you change about your kitchen?

02:04:35 Gods With Badges is Strange Scaffold's latest...and it's got an interesting backstory

02:23:45 New AI-powered game demo is running $1000/day token bill

02:30:30 Capcom's new AI initiative deserves some clarification

02:51:37 Onimusha: Way of the Sword isn't that hard...yet

02:56:11 The Witcher 3 Remaster reminds us that being down bad for a beautiful woman is a great plot device

03:00:18 Doggy Don't Care puts you in the paws of a destructive pug

03:02:40 Highlights from Falling Block Jam 2026

03:06:37 Which Final Fantasy wardrobe are you copping?

03:12:10 Which fighting game archetype do you gravitate toward?

03:17:07 Crunchy Cheetos or Cheetos Puffs?

03:19:52 New five star review and Outro

Thanks for listening!

Please leave us a review! We'll read it on the show and it helps us out a lot.

VGBees is ad-free, AI-free, and completely supported by you! https://vgbees.com/join

VGBees is a weekly games media podcast hosted by Niki, John, and Lotus.

On this week's episode, the crew handle a slow news week by going very, very deep on Mike Tomlin's Minecraft city, 2XKO's missed concurrent player target, and impressions of cozy-yet-hardcore Dressmaker.

00:00:00 Intro, John's bad day, pallbearers for hire

00:26:45 2XKO's wild swing and miss for concurrent players

00:41:09 Mike Tomlin's Minecraft city inspired some big, big opinions from the crew

01:25:50 Control Resonant's open world features frustrating barriers

01:29:47 Dressmaker might be "cozy," but it's for the sickos

01:37:50 Niki made a photo zine!

01:43:57 HIVE QUESTIONS BEGIN; which person of the VGBees Zord is the bee's knees?

01:47:18 What were you proud of this week?

01:49:00 Which day is worse for being online: April 1 or May 4?

01:52:34 How long do you have to play a game to say you have played it?

01:55:52 How clean are your floors?

02:00:42 Which bread makes the best toast?

02:08:00 What was the last thing you did that you would consider to be whimsical?

02:10:32 Would you eat a hot dog with nothing else on it?; How big is too big for a Metroidvania?

02:12:00 What's your favorite PAC match?

02:15:20 What's the most centrist RPG?

02:17:40 What switches games journalism to games eschatology?

02:23:57 Is taking a pill that was on the floor safe?

02:26:30 Asha Sharma gives you her personal cell number, what are you doing with it?

02:29:00 Why does VGBees not concern itself with playing every new major release?

02:34:11 Is there a button in your house that is satisfying to push?

02:36:25 Mario and Sonic split; how are they splitting the Olympics games?

02:38:38 What's the dumbest media you've enjoyed lately?

02:39:45 How can someone be redeemed and reenter a community after true harm is done?; HIVE QUESTIONS END

02:51:20 Show Reviews & Outro

Thanks for listening!

Please leave us a review! We'll read it on the show and it helps us out a lot.

VGBees is ad-free, AI-free, and completely supported by you! https://vgbees.com/join

VGBees is a weekly games media podcast hosted by Niki, John, and Lotus.

This week, Lotus, John, and Niki tackle a very busy week of games news, including a new round of Xbox layoffs, Xbox studio consolidation, Activision making the next Halo game, and Bungie's unvaulting of Destiny 2 content.

00:00:00 Intro & Niki's big trip

00:14:30 Xbox's latest layoffs and consolidations

00:50:42 Undead Labs goes independent; State of Decay 3 still aiming for 2027 release

00:56:55 World's Edge loses half staff and one upcoming project

00:58:34 King union wins their collective bargaining agreement; will avoid strike

01:01:11 A sudden discussion about cigarettes and food waste

01:09:25 The People Make Games Bobby Kotick story

01:17:30 Tim Schafer opens up a bit about Microsoft turmoil

01:21:35 Bungie isn't done with Desinty after all

01:41:40 Lotus finished Roman Sands RE:Build

01:47:47 How Niki made their Annie's Mac n Cheese

01:50:32 Niki played Control Resonant and loves that it is divisive

02:05:45 The Travis Scott track on the GTA6 soundtrack is pretty good

02:07:00 HIVE QUESTIONS

02:46:30 Outro

Thanks for listening!

Please leave us a review! We'll read it on the show and it helps us out a lot.

VGBees is ad-free, AI-free, and completely supported by you! https://vgbees.com/join

VGBees is a weekly games media podcast hosted by Niki, John, and Lotus.

This week, Niki, John, and Lotus discussed the biggest news stories of the week, including a look at Zach Cregger's Resident Evil, numerous head-scratching announcements from BlizzCon, and the news that Roblox is working toward a future providing standalone games to multiple platforms.

00:00:00 Intro & sorting through John's will

00:11:30 BlizzCon 2026: games that might not come out and what will we do with three World of Warcraft SKUs?

00:25:30 King's unionized workers are about to strike, which prompted a very deep conversation about the nature of monetized free to play mobile games

01:00:00 Roblox is going to release standalone games among other worrisome updates

01:04:40 Hyper Light Drifter's Heart Machine is facing closure after publishing pull

01:08:55 Game Developer dot com facing staff shakeup; IGN lays off many long-tenured staff

01:12:25 Resident Evil solidifies Zach Cregger as one of horror's best active directors

01:26:42 Niki bought a PlayStation Portal

01:37:40 Lotus' time so far with Roman Sands RE:Build

01:50:35 Carly Rae Jepsen's new double album is out; John watches the Barenaked Ladies rendition of "O Canada"

02:00:00 HIVE QUESTIONS

02:42:42 Outro

Thanks for listening!

Please leave us a review! We'll read it on the show and it helps us out a lot.

VGBees is ad-free, AI-free, and completely supported by you! https://vgbees.com/join

VGBees is a weekly games media podcast hosted by Niki, John, and Lotus.

This week, John, Niki, and Lotus dove into both Nintendo Directs, the stunning news that Sony is dropping Hideo Kojima's next projects, and Blizzard's new union formation just ahead of Blizzcon.

00:00:00 Intro & our new tagline

00:10:03 Ocarina of Time is changing for modern audiences

00:34:54 Samus is hungry in Metroid Ravenous

00:37:00 Kirby and the World Beyond is perhaps the biggest adventure yet in the franchise

00:43:50 Powerwash Simulator dev lays off staff in extremely strange way

00:49:09 Big game-spoiling achievements were leaked from Steam

00:53:55 Blizzard employees form union protecting 1,900 staff

00:59:35 Sony drops Kojima projects, Xbox takes over, big conversation about game direction ensues

01:31:10 Nintendo's tariff sale

01:36:08 Grand Theft Auto VI preview apparently drives 100,000 Netflix sign-ups

01:43:43 Tony is a slice of a biopic that manages to tell a lot of Anthony Bourdain's story

01:48:20 The gang is split on the success of Coyote vs Acme

02:07:45 Niki is very much enjoying the reboot of The Grand Tour

02:18:55 iPhone Duo is weird but might just work

02:27:20 HIVE QUESTIONS

02:42:59 Outro

Thanks for listening!

Please leave us a review! We'll read it on the show and it helps us out a lot.

VGBees is ad-free, AI-free, and completely supported by you! https://vgbees.com/join

VGBees is a weekly games media podcast hosted by Niki, John, and Lotus.

This week, Lotus, Niki, and John discuss the Star Wars Zero Company furloughs, the new limits on Xbox Cloud for Game Pass, and the explosive Pablo Torre stories have the hosts asking, "why don't we have this kind of investigative journalism in games?"

00:00:00 Intro & John's extremely beautiful voice

00:07:18 Star Wars Zero Company devs furloughed ahead of game's release

00:15:30 SteamDB is now under Nexus Mods' parent ownership

00:21:10 Xbox introducing harsh limits on cloud gaming on Game Pass

00:31:20 PlayStation says users know they don't own digital games and how common gamers are unequipped to fight this

00:47:50 Pablo Torre exposed the Los Angeles Clippers and now we're wondering where all the investigative gaming journalism is

01:16:20 Niki wants to know why they can't lock into games they want to be excited about

01:22:30 HIVE QUESTIONS

01:36:45 Outro

Thanks for listening!

Please leave us a review! We'll read it on the show and it helps us out a lot.

VGBees is ad-free, AI-free, and completely supported by you! https://vgbees.com/join

VGBees is a weekly games media podcast hosted by Niki, John, and Lotus.

This week, Niki, John, and Lotus did their homework on the bizarrely-edited Grand Theft Auto VI reveal on Netflix and also dove into Gamescom announcements, like The Witcher 3 Remastered.

00:00:00 Intro & A Condensed History of How We Know Each Other

00:14:30 Grand Theft Auto VI is every verb

00:44:09 Star Citizen's Squadron 42 delayed again

00:48:25 The Witcher 3 Songs of the Past unearths an ancient evil for Geralt to fight

00:49:48 The Witcher 3 Remastered is a free update with tons of improvements

00:51:42 Final Fantasy 7 Revelation is not pumping the brakes

00:56:25 Blood Dungeon is a survivors-like with platforming finesse

00:59:42 Lotus got rid of her car (finally)

01:16:40 John might have to get litigious over a wheelchair peripheral

01:22:00 Jeff Grubb sent Niki a package

01:23:50 HIVE QUESTIONS

01:51:48 Outro

Thanks for listening!

Please leave us a review! We'll read it on the show and it helps us out a lot.

VGBees is ad-free, AI-free, and completely supported by you! https://vgbees.com/join

VGBees is a weekly games media podcast hosted by Niki, John, and Lotus.

This week, Lotus, Niki, and John tackled a jam-packed week of surprising news, including Riot ending 2XKO's development, Twitch's surprise auto-opt-in for GenAI training, and the ongoing and expansive Grand Theft Auto VI leaks.

00:00:00 Intro & fun drug side effects

00:08:00 Twitch's GenAI training program

00:15:15 Roblox being investigated by US Senate for over 65,000 reported incidents of child abuse

00:30:35 New Horizon live service game being rebooted by Sony

00:37:42 Compulsion games now fully independent from Xbox

00:41:02 2XKO ending development in December

00:55:47 Grand Theft Auto VI build appears to be in the hands of a leaker...could it be an inside job??? (it is reportedly not but we recorded this a day early lol)

01:15:28 Saber CEO apologizes to writer/narrative designer Stella Sacco

01:17:56 Agent 64 Spies Never Die is a competent nod to games that have not aged well

01:20:32 Esoteric Ebb might be a little too esoteric, frankly

01:24:10 We haven't played The Duskbloods, but we talked about it anyway

01:25:45 Entropy is a new RPG from the folks who made Dread Delusion and it is quite good so far

01:32:45 HIVE QUESTIONS

02:07:15 Outro

Thanks for listening!

Please leave us a review! We'll read it on the show and it helps us out a lot.

VGBees is ad-free, AI-free, and completely supported by you! https://vgbees.com/join

VGBees is a weekly games media podcast hosted by Niki, John, and Lotus.

This week, John and Niki are joined by Jesse Vitelli, fresh off a five day subathon on his Twitch channel after being laid off at Restart.Run. Together, they take a hard look at Matt Karch's history of odd behavior, Netflix's most recent studio closures, and Star Wars Zero Company.

00:00:00 Intro & Raising Cane's talk

00:11:25 Saber Interactive CEO Matt Karch did something very weird and has done many weird things previously to this new weird thing

00:34:14 Netflix closes Night School, Moonloot, and lays off others

00:41:35 Restart.Run's remaining leadership releases a bizarre statement

00:48:23 Pokémon Pokopia sold five million copies

00:54:00 Take-Two looks to be getting deeper into simulation sports

00:56:00 Wolverine & Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave previews dropped

01:11:20 South of Midnight now listed as self-published, but is that the whole story?

01:12:55 Esoteric Ebb serves the best of Disco Elysium without some of the baggage

01:20:30 Knytt Classic is a faithful update of a 2006 freeware standout

01:23:27 Niki's in the Splatoon Raiders endgame now

01:26:55 Star Wars Zero Company is a lot more than a new XCOM

01:47:00 HIVE QUESTIONS

02:20:55 Outro

Thanks for listening!

Please leave us a review! We'll read it on the show and it helps us out a lot.