The VGBees Podcast

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.

This week, Lotus, Niki, and John discuss their very enjoyable time together with Big Walk, Devolver Digital's move off of the London Stock Exchange, and Netflix's incredibly bizarre six hour rental of Grand Theft Auto VI's deeper dive trailer later this month.
00:00:00 Intro & laundry hamper talk
00:14:30 Netflix's Grand Theft Auto VI "exclusive" look
00:47:26 EA's big deal with the Saudis and Jared Kushner closed
01:12:30 Halo Studios parts ways with contractors
01:20:32 Devolver Digital moves to unlist from London Stock Exchange to go private
01:33:30 Square Enix is collaborating with Google Gemini for AI-based QA
01:40:43 PlayStation by far the most played console in the US
01:41:53 Restart Run staff laid off
01:44:43 Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the best the MCU has been in a very long time
01:51:40 Splatoon Raiders continues to delight us
01:57:37 AYN Thor is probably the best one of these emulation handhelds
02:02:10 The VGBees Crew is having a blast with Big Walk
02:37:25 HIVE QUESTIONS
03:10:57 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, Niki, and John discuss Xbox's 7% revenue decrease year over year, Tencent's alleged "Grand Theft Auto killer" Last Sentinel facing major problems, and impressions of one of 2026's most pleasant surprises, Splatoon Raiders.
00:00:00 Intro & drug testing
00:08:35 Double Fine lays off 23 after going independent
00:13:07 Xbox reports $1.7b loss due to critical business failures
00:17:07 Tencent's Last Sentinel quietly lays off staff, possibly canceled
00:32:50 Super Mario Sunshine coming to Nintendo Switch Online
00:38:55 Splatoon Raiders is what Splatoon probably should've always been
00:54:25 Endacopia is a surrealist point-and-click jaunt
00:58:18 Midnight Moments is a pleasant, but perhaps shallow, cyberpunk diorama-builder
01:01:52 Niki's Apple TV came!
01:08:53 VGBees Baseball Talk
01:20:35 HIVE QUESTIONS
02:40:35 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, Lotus, and Niki discuss the Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls open beta, Unity 7's announcement and features, EA's approved sale to the PIF, and Deltarune Chapter 5.
00:00:00 Intro & some strong Splatoon opinions
00:21:35 Hasbro cancels projects slated for 2028 and beyond
00:26:58 EU approves EA sale to the PIF
00:33:30 Unity 7 announced with some interesting new features in tow
00:42:35 Poinpy is free now and is still great
00:45:08 Hey, Left 4 Dead 2 is still really great, too
00:52:20 Paragnosia is like Five Nights at Freddy's but in a house with demons
00:55:45 Deltarune is stretching its welcome with Niki
00:58:50 Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls balances simplified inputs with nuanced complexity undearneath
01:04:30 Niki tearfully admits they're excited about Wolverine
01:12:06 A detour to Love Island and Ariana Madix's whole deal
01:16:10 HIVE QUESTIONS
02:11:05 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.