The VGBees Podcast

This week, Lotus, Niki, and John set out to dissect the price sensitivity opus laid out by Peak's devs in an interview with Stephen Totilo. Is eight bucks really five bucks? This and much more, including:
AGDQ's haul and interesting future
Hytale's long path to Early Access
Meta's VR investment goes toe up
Steam Community Awards face major changes
Spry Fox spinning out of Netflix
Inverse & The Verge see games-related layoffs
Steam rewrites their generative AI disclosure rules

We played:
Animal Crossing New Horizons
Angeline Era
Type Help

Also, your burning HIVE QUESTIONS are answered from our lovely Discord.

This week, Lotus, Niki, and John are back and ready to tackle the first fresh news of 2026, including:
The passing of Sega cofounder David Rosen
Discord files for an IPO
New Life is Strange is leaked to ratings site
Jason Schreier causes Take-Two's stock price go down, kinda
Minecraft getting new baby animals
Larian's CEO still doesn't seem to understand Gen AI
Independent Games Festival nominees announced

We played:
Vital Shell

Also, your burning HIVE QUESTIONS are answered straight from our lovely Discord.

This week, John, Niki, and Lotus stare down the barrel of a very slow gaming news week, so they tackle some additional stuff, too, including:
Twitter's Gen AI CSAM and sexual violence catastrophe
Microsoft's CEO begging us to stop calling Gen AI "slop"
GOG cofounder buys GOG from CD PROJEKT (which he also cofounded)
GPUs are going to get even more expensive
Splitgate sequel is not going very well

We played:
Formless Star, the follow-up to sublime Franken
Final Fantasy IX, perhaps the best of the entire franchise

We also answer your burning HIVE QUESTIONS straight from our lovely Discord.

Note: a better quality audio upload will be available in a couple days.
Hello! Another year has flown by and Niki, Lotus, and John are here to talk about their favorite games and gaming-adjacent things from 2025! Included in the GOTY chat:
Donkey Kong Bananza
Hades II
Avowed*
Ball X Pit
Pokemon Legends: Z-A
Blippo+
Kinophobia
Mario Kart World
The Nintendo Switch 2

Also, the news of the week!
Star Citizen will eclipse one billion dollars in investment soon
Clair Obscur's Indie Game Award was rescinded for AI inclusion
Vince Zampella dead at 55

We answer your burning HIVE QUESTIONS from our lovely Discord!
*Microsoft and Xbox are still complicit in the genocide in Gaza. Go to nogamesforgenocide.com for more information and to sign the pledge today.

This week, Niki treats John and Lotus to the first ever VGBees Podcast Edition of Scam Text Theatre! After this momentous occasion, the crew turns its sights to the biggest news of the week, including:
Larian's CEO decides to drag his company into a gen AI quagmire
People Make Games boycott Xbox (and transforms John's thinking in the process)
League of Legends is getting a massive rework
Naughty Dog is already crunching on Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet
JK Rowling likely to pocket a ton of royalty dollars on the Harry Potter x Fortnite collab