Explore every episode of the podcast Some Patches Required

This week, Zak and Aaron return to the burgeoning phenomena of old video games being resurrected and expanded through the lens of World of Warcraft: Forever. Much like The Witcher 3 with Songs of the Past, Blizzard has gone back to basics with its legendary MMO, and is essentially building on the blueprint laid down by WoW: Classic with new content and fresh mechanics.

It's a fascinating move for one of the industries longest-running and most influential success stories - and it might just catch the industry's attention if it pays off.

Please, enjoy.

Sources:

World of Warcraft: Forever - What's Next Panel - BlizzCon 2026

World of Warcraft: Forever Overview - New Features, Zones, Raids - Wowhead

Blizzard is scrambling to meet World of Warcraft Forever's unexpected popularity - Polygon

Blizzard Finally Made WoW For Regular People - Bellular Warcraft

So, what is WoW Forever? - Bellular Warcraft

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This week, Zak and Aaron are back to talk about Sony walking into a PR landmine... again. This time, they seem to have unexpectedly dumped legendary developer Hideo Kojima and Physint, his spiritual successor to Metal Gear Solid. In the wake of the title being scooped up ravenously by XBOX, all that's left is to discuss why... and poke some more fun at PlayStation's legendary streak of misfortune.

Please, enjoy.

Sources:

Why PlayStation Ditched Hideo Kojima's Physint - Jason Schreier

PlayStation Are So Scared, They Dumped Kojima - Bellular News

Bill Skarsgard to Star in Hideo Kojima’s ‘Physint’ Video Game From Xbox - Variety

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This week, Zak and Aaron draw a throughline connecting numerous recent episodes, and discuss the state of the games industry in general. Namely, the fact that many of its woes can be tied to the idea that games are now a mature market rather than a growing one. But that has no bearing on investors' insatiable need to see the all-important line go up - whatever the cost.

Please, enjoy.

Sources:

The Death Of Physical Games Is A Sign Of What's Coming - Jason Schreier

The Video Game Industry Is Collapsing - Adam Conover

PRESENTATION: The State of Video Gaming in 2025 - Matthew Ball

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This week, Zak and Aaron return to the ever-growing trash heap that is Sony's failed foray into live service gaming to talk about its latest addition: Guerilla's Monster Hunter-like Horizon Hunters Gathering. Following less-than-ideal feedback from playtests spread across the year, the studio reportedly now has just a handful of months to impress executives as a more traditional co-op title, lest itn receive the axe like so many before it.

This raises the question: money aside, what was the real cost of Sony's blunder? And what does it mean for the future of its studios?

Please, enjoy.

Sources:

Announcing Horizon Hunters Gathering, Guerrilla’s new co-op action game - Guerilla Games

PlayStation's Live-Service Initiative Could Not Have Gone Worse - Jason Schreier

Sony reportedly reverses course on live service co-op Horizon game after 'negative player feedback' - PCGamer

The opportunity cost of Sony's live service pivot is enormous | Opinion - GamesIndustry.biz

Sony Says Ghost of Yotei 'Exceeded' the Sales of Ghost of Tsushima in the Same Period of Time and 'Significantly' Contributed to Its Financial Results - IGN

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This week, Zak and Aaron take a moment to discuss Sony's recent decision to discontinue the release of physical games in 2028, and what it means for the future of ownership in general. Just a heads up, its looking pretty grim out there.

Sources:

The World Is Turning On PlayStation - Bellular News

The Death Of PlayStation Discs Was Decades In The Making - Jason Schreier

Why PlayStation Is Killing Discs (Despite The Fan Revolt) - Jason Schreier

Sony Killed Destiny 2, Now It's Killing Physical Game Discs  - Paul Tassi

Nintendo Says Physical Games Still Account for 38.5% of Its Software Sales, Following Sony's Decision to Kill PS5 Discs - IGN

Circana Data via BlueSky - Matt Piscatella

PlayStation ending physical games is "like Apple removing the CD Drive from its laptops," says analyst: "Not a single person is complaining about it today" - GamesRadar+

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This week, Zak and Aaron take a beat to address the thousands of layoffs that wracked many XBOX studios in recent weeks, and how that culling relates to Bethesda's newest move: just announcing or re-announcing every single thing they're working on all at once. 

Beyond the evident smoke and mirrors, can the studio actually deliver for modern audiences? And exactly how much Fallout is too much Fallout?

Please, enjoy.

Sources:

Why Did Bethesda Just Announce... Everything? - Bellular News

Xbox layoffs: Jobs lost at Obsidian, Bethesda, Id and Zenimax Online Studios - GamesIndustry.biz

Xbox announces plans to lay off 3,200 staff and divest five studios - GamesIndustry.biz

Bethesda pivots to "franchise-centric" planning model amid Xbox restructure - GamesIndustry.biz 

Bethesda reveals plans for Fallout 5, The Elder Scrolls 6, and more - GamesIndustry.biz 

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Has Sold 65 Million Copies Since Going on Sale in 2011 - IGN

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This week, Zak and Aaron are back to talk about the biggest event in the history of the games industry, and why it could still be considered a failure in the eyes of investors. That's right, Grand Theft Auto VI, the game to end all games and save manufacturers from languishing console sails, could absolutely flop. If its hotly anticipated online component doesn't just meet, but exceed the astronomical financial figures posted by GTA V since its launch in 2013, the future of Rockstar and its 5,000-plus employees may be a lot less stable than previously imagined.

Sources:

I Cant Believe You've Done This - PWee28

Take-Two’s real GTA 6 jackpot may not be the game itself - The Street

GTA 5 Statistics 2026 - Axis Intelligence Research

GTA Online Leak Reveals $5 Billion In Revenue, Shocking Spending Habits - RockstarIntel

GTA 6 is a 'singleplayer experience', leaving me to question what's going on with GTA Online - PC Gamer

GTA 6 Doesn't Mean The End Of GTA Online, Says Take-Two CEO - Kotaku

GTA 6 Has the Highest Break-Even Threshold in Entertainment History - GTABoom

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This week, Zak and Aaron are back at it with something potentially positive, for a change! Namely, that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is receiving a 12-years-after-the-fact expansion entitled Songs of the Past, bucking industry trends and further solidifying the base game as one of the most important RPGs of the last 20 years.

Never content to simply enjoy good news when it comes, Zak and Aaron instead find themselves consumed by several questions upon which they will pontificate into your ears for roughly the next hour.

Please, enjoy.

Sources:

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Songs of the Past - NEW Details You May Not Know - GamingBolt

The Witcher 3 sold another 5 million copies over the last year: 'This cements its place among the best-selling videogames in history' - PC Gamer 

It's Official: The Witcher 3 Songs of the Past Expansion Is Real and It's Coming Next Year - IGN

Games – Fool's Theory

SteamDB - The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

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This week, Zak and Aaron are back to talk about Bungie again, but not exclusively because of Marathon this time. It would seem that the bell has finally tolled for the long-beleaguered Destiny 2, as its studio is releasing one final content update before transitioning the title to maintenance mode. Perhaps more damning are the recent reports that a Destiny 3 has yet to be greenlit by Sony, and that Bungie is expected to be hit by a substantial round of layoffs in the near future.

With all resources now going towards rescuing the struggling Marathon, what does the future look like? Can Bungie turn the game around, or will it continue to flounder? And if it flounders, what does that mean for the storied studio's long-term prospects?

Please, enjoy.

Sources:

Reality Check: The Fate Of Destiny 3, Marathon And Bungie - Paul Tassi

Bungie Announces The Final Death Of Destiny 2 - The Expected, Sad, Maddening End Of An Era - Paul Tassi

PlayStation Finally Realized Bungie Played Them - Bellular News

With ‘Destiny 2’ Gone, No ‘Destiny 3’ Is Coming - Forbes

Destiny 2's End Reportedly Portends 'Significant' Layoffs At Bungie - Kotaku

‘Marathon’ Is Pulling The PvE Trigger In Season 2, A Sign Of Things To Come - Forbes

(20) Marathon on X: "Launch, Learnings, and What’s Next" - Bungie Blog Post

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This week, Zak and Aaron are back at it, talking about indie mega-hit Slay The Spire 2 and its evidently divided player base. You see, while the game has earned rave reviews almost across the board and attracted hundreds of thousands of players, it's also been the target of three separate review bombing campaigns, the largest of which earned the game more than 70 thousand negative reviews on Steam... predominantly in the Chinese language.

Why such anger from one specific area of the world? And what's up with those other two review bombs, anyway?

Please, enjoy.

Check Out Bobo Bay on Steam!

Sources:

We Know Why They Did It - Bellular News

I Read Chinese Reviews to Understand Slay the Spire 2’s Backlash - Wayshush

Slay the Spire 2 is Being Review-Bombed Yet Again - Gamerant

Slay The Spire 2 Is Fantastic, So Why Is It Being Review-Bombed? - GameSpot 

Slay The Spire 2 Getting Review-Bombed Again After Latest Update - Kotaku

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This week, Zak and Aaron revisit a topic from earlier this season: the Stop Killing Games Movement! It's been a big couple of months for Ross Scott and the crew which has now grown into an official Non-Governmental Organization in Europe, presented its case in front of Parliament, and even thrown its weight behind proposed legislation in California.

What does all of this mean for the movement at large? Only time will tell for sure... but we've got some thoughts right now. 

Please, enjoy.

Sources:

Stop Killing Games Just Revealed Its Real Power: Ubisoft's In Trouble - Bellular News

Stop Killing Games Just Won Over Europe - Bellular News

SKG plans coming to fruition / Ubisoft sued by consumer watchdog - Accursed Farms

Stop Killing Games movement celebrates as The Crew 2 sees further offline mode support - Eurogamer

Stop Killing Games backs California law that will force devs to preserve games after shut down - Dexerto

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This week, Zak and Aaron take a moment to discuss an online conflict that rears its ugly head with disappointing regularity — the divide between critic and audience review scores when it comes to games and movies. Specifically, our intrepid hosts delve into the cacophonous world of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which is earning rapturous praise from casual viewers and drawing ample derision from critics. 

With such a disparity of opinions on display, who are you supposed to trust? And what is the role of a critic in the modern media landscape, anyway?

Please, enjoy.

Sources:

Mario Galaxy Movie Drama is Crazy - Moist Critical

‘Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ Divides Fans And Critics On Rotten Tomatoes - Forbes

Why the Super Mario Galaxy movie is majorly dividing audiences and critics - ScreenRant

The Purpose Of Critics Is Grossly Misunderstood - Giant Freakin Robot

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This week, Zak and Aaron are back to check in on Marathon, the latest title from Bungie and the latest shot by Sony to make a splash in the wildly oversaturated live service market. Rather than being an unmitigated disaster on the level of Concord or even Highguard, or a runaway success like Arc Raiders, Marathon is something of an in-bounds outlier - performance is perfectly middle-of-the-road.

It's reviewing well, but player numbers are certainly soft for a game that was meant to finally make good on both Sony's $3.7 billion purchase of Bungie and  its wider live-service ambitions. So, what comes next?

Please, enjoy.

Sources:

Marathon has sold 1.2M copies across Steam, PS5, and Xbox - Alinea Insights

Marathon Was Bungie's Last Hope - Bellular News

'Things Are Looking Lukewarm Right Now' — Marathon Has Reportedly Sold Just 1.2 Million So Far, With Steam Making Up 70% of the Player Base - IGN

Sony Has Completed Its $3.7 Billion Deal to Acquire Bungie and Welcome It Into the PlayStation Family - IGN

Sony Says Bungie Hasn’t Brought in as Much Money as It Thought It Would When It Bought the Developer, as Destiny 2 Falls Off a Cliff - IGN

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This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to discuss some pretty massive changes over at Xbox, namely the retirement of long-time CEO Phil Spencer and the quiet disappearance of his heir apparent, Sarah Bond. In their place, we find Asha Sharma, a seasoned executive who most recently led Microsoft's CoreAI team.

The why of it all is a bit murky at the moment, but that leaves plenty of room for speculation, with one big question at the heart of everything: what's next for Xbox as the brand navigates its new, Phil-free future?

Please, enjoy.

Sources:

Asha Sharma named EVP and CEO, Microsoft Gaming - The Official MicrosoftBlog

The Xbox Situation Is Worse Than Microsoft Are Letting On - Bellular News

New Xbox CEO Responds To ‘Real Gamer,’ AI Tweet Accusations - Forbes

Billions of dollars later and still nobody knows what an Xbox is - The Verge

Call Of Duty Lost $300 Million In Sales Due To Game Pass - Report - GameSpot

Black Ops 7 Had Call Of Duty's Worst Sales Year Ranking In The US Since 2008 - GameSpot

Xbox Sales Are Down 70% Year-Over-Year With PS5 Down 40% - Forbes

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This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to chat with Ashley Ruhl, the Narrative Director at Broadsword Online Games, currently in charge of Star Wars: The Old Republic! She was kind enough to tell us a little bit about her role working on SWTOR before moving on to the... ahem, meat of the conversation: romance! Specifically, romance in video games, how it can be approached thoughtfully, and where we'd like to see it go in the future.

Please, enjoy.

Check out Ashley's recommended reading!

Digital Love: Romance and Sexuality in Games - Heidi McDonald

Passion and Play: A Guide to Designing Sexual Content in Games - Michelle Clough

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This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to discuss yet another curious case of misguided marketing — this time with fewer questionable hats. Highguard, which secured the headlining spot at The Game Awards 2025 thanks to Geoff Keighley's personal fondness for the title, launched last week to overwhelmingly negative reviews on Steam and a rapidly dwindling player count. 

How did this happen? Who's to blame? Does the game deserve all of this hate, and will it ever be able to overcome it? 

Please, enjoy.

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This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to discuss how a series of PR... er, let's call them "miscalculations," arguably torpedoed Splitgate: Arena Reloaded (formerly Splitgate 2) before it even had a chance. This story has it all: politically-charged headware choices, petty Twitter arguments, $100 million investments, off-putting apology videos, and much, much more!

Please, enjoy.

Sources:

Splitgate 2 Live Service Relaunches, Immediately Dies A Second Time…
Splitgate Dev Insists Steam Charts Aren't Important As Player Numbers Plummet…
This CEO Burned $500k To Humiliate His Own Game
I’ve Never Seen A Studio Fumble $100m This Hard

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This week, Zak and Aaron are back in hell to discuss the pending acquisition of Warner Bros. by Netflix. They touch on what the merger could mean for the future of movie theaters before diving into the main topic at hand: the fate of WB Games and its treasure trove of IP. Spoiler alert: things are looking bleak.

Please, enjoy.

P.S. Aaron recorded a portion of this episode while holding a sick pupper, so if you hear any coughing, please be kind to Louie.

Sources:

The Battle for Control of Warner Bros.: A Timeline of Key Developments

What Happens to Warner Bros. Games Under Netflix?

Netflix Considers Warner Bros. Games To Be Worthless

Netflix Closes Its All-Star AAA Video Game Studio, Which Made Zero Games

Netflix acquires games avatar firm Ready Player Me

The Netflix Gaming Deal Is A Match Made In Hell

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This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to discuss Valve's new, ambitious hardware plans, especially the announcement's headliner: the brand-new Steam Machine. With the form-factor and convenience of a console and the hardware heft of a gaming PC, the cutely nicknamed "Gabe Cube" seems poised to disrupt the market as we know it... but will it? A better question may be, is it even meant to?

Please, enjoy.

Episode References:

Linus Tech Tips - The STEAM Machine Won't Cost What You Think

YongYea: Valve Drop Moe Hints On Machine Price, And...

Bellular News: Valve's on the Warpath

GameSpot: The Steam Machine Doesn't Even Have To Try

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This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to chat about another (increasingly rare) industry success story: the brand-new Telltale-style adventure Dispatch! How, despite facing doubt from publishers over the game's fairly niche genre and episodic release structure, did AdHoc Studio's debut title release to rousing numbers and enviable review scores? Only one way to find out...

Please, enjoy.

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This week, Zak and Aaron finally get around to discussing one of the most significant events in the recent history of the games industry — the $55 billion purchase of Electronic Arts by a consortium of private investors, including the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund and Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners, among others.

In addition to running through the myriad issues tied to such politically troubling hands meddling with one of the world's largest publishers, there is one significant question at hand: what happens to the veritable mountain of IP under EA's control?

Please, enjoy.

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This week, Zak and Aaron are delighted to present a conversation with Chris Knight, a 2D artist based in Austin, TX. Chris was kind enough to share some insights from his career, some funny (and not-so-funny) stories, and his frank opinion on what it takes to succeed in the games industry – especially in an incredibly crowded field.

Please, enjoy.

Check Out Chris' ArtStation!

Take a Look at PolyCarp!

Have a Gander at Good Knight Art!

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This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to talk about Xbox GamePass' recent price increase... again! That's right, the fabled "best value in gaming" just saw a 50% jump in cost, barely a year after the last jump. What's more, there's a compelling argument to be made that the subscription service is actually removing value for players rather than adding it to compensate for the increased asking price.

Please, enjoy.

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This week, Zak and Aaron... actually have something positive to talk about for once! Namely, the predictably smashing release of Hollow Knight: Silksong, which, after nearly a decade in development, launched to platform-crashing numbers and fairly rapturous praise.

On top of celebrating an indie success story, they discuss the game's refreshingly reasonable $20 price point and highlight the many benefits of keeping development costs and team sizes lean. In short, this is almost certainly the most uplifting episode of SPR in quite some time.

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This week, Zak and Aaron kindly beg your attention to a very serious matter: the censorship of thousands of NSFW games across Steam and Itch.io at the behest of payment processors like Mastercard. 

Prompted by a grassroots organization with far-right connections called Collective Shout, this incident could have far-reaching implications for free speech, result in LGBTQ+ erasure, and mean that corporations become the arbiters of what does and does not constitute art in the future.

Please, enjoy.

Missed what's happened? Check out the links below. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlEHovdeKZw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUMwQ1euK8Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTDhsqN2NB4

Intro: 00:00:00
21,000 Points for Censorship: 00:04:02
Collective Shout Pt. 1: 00:15:39
Morality and Context: 00:25:58
Collective Shout Pt. 2 - Erasure: 00:35:32
What About Age Ratings?: 00:42:30
Applying the Same Logic to Books: 00:51:03
Conclusions: 00:55:30
Outro: 01:03:10

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This week, Zak and Aaron dig into a topic that's as absurd as it is concerning: the CEO of Roblox wants to officially incorporate dating into the platform. Completely ignoring the fact that the game's core audience is mostly children, David Baszucki seems to believe that bringing horny adults into the fold will act as a balm to soothe the "loneliness epidemic" plaguing the modern world. What could possibly go wrong?

Please, enjoy.

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This week, Zak and Aaron delve into the nitty-gritty of the Stop Killing Games movement — an initiative with the simple goal of persuading publishers to, well, stop killing games. From preservation to protecting consumer interests, Stop Killing Games aims to solve a lot of high-level problems, and your hosts have many thoughts to share.

Oh, and feel free to jump ahead to Chapter 3 (or the 29-minute mark) if you don't want to hear two goobers explain what the initiative is in exhausting detail. 

Please, enjoy.

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This week, Zak and Aaron sit down, inexplicably inspired by a meme, to discuss the rise of so-called "FriendSlop" games. These are titles like Repo, Lethal Company, and the recently released Peak, all of which are currently laying waste to the Steam charts as we speak. 

Why are these games so successful at the moment? What differentiates them from others on the market? What could this be saying about the industry at large? Your intrepid hosts are ready with, if not answers to these questions, at least a bunch more to match.

Please, enjoy.

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It finally happened! A set of entertainment juggernauts — Disney and Universal — are taking the fight to AI in a big way. This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to discuss the new lawsuit against image generator Midjourney, why it's happening, and what it could mean for the future. They also spend some quality time complaining about generative AI in general, because, well, there's a lot to complain about.

Please, enjoy.

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 This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to discuss the absolute onslaught of video game movie adaptations coming down the pike at breakneck speed. From questions of quantity over quality to musings on which projects have the most potential, your intrepid hosts dig into what may be the next Hollywood craze - or an unsustainable bubble building towards an inevitable burst.

Please, enjoy.

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This week, Zak and Aaron take a moment to celebrate the runaway critical and commercial success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33... and then dig into why it won't matter at all to big publishers and the money-making machine behind them. Tragically, the narrative that breakout hits in the singleplayer space can somehow make them appealing to investors again is misguided, and Clair Obscur is just the most recent example. This is why we can't have nice things.

Please, enjoy.

Watch: The games industry is screwed - Alanah Pearce
Read: The State of Video Gaming in 2025 - Matthew Ball

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This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to discuss Bungie's newest project, Marathon! The dig into everything from the upcoming extraction shooter's aesthetic to its narrative to its choice of genre in service of answering one question — will this finally be the game to make good on Sony's lofty live service ambitions? 

Please, enjoy.

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This week, Zak and Aaron dive into a new controversy that may have long-lasting implications for the industry at large — Nintendo's decision to price some first-party AAA games at $80.

The duo discusses why this price increase is not only unnecessary and bad for consumers, but also how it stands to open the floodgates for greed among big publishers looking to make the all-powerful line go up for shareholders. They also spend some time dissecting why the argument that games need to increase in price to keep up with inflation is myopic at best, and completely misguided at worst.

Please, enjoy

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This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to discuss the newly formed United Videogame Workers Union — a brand-new collective attempting to bring the power of collective bargaining to every corner of the industry, regardless of company or position.

They spend some time outlining the circumstances that brought us to this crossroads, and then dissect some of the potential positives of the movement as well as the challenges it may face moving forward. There are still a lot of questions left to answer, but one thing is for certain: this is a significant moment in video game history.

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This week, Zak and Aaron sit down for a delightful conversation with Kevin Messenhimer, one of the co-founders of the indie game studio Fiveamp. 

The trio covers a broad range of topics as they follow Kevin's journey from a member of Intel's hardware team to his time at Gearbox Software and eventually to the recent release of NIMRODS on Steam Early Access. It's chock-full of insights into the development process, humorous anecdotes, and entertaining asides that the whole family is sure to love. Well, maybe not the whole family, but the point stands.

Please, enjoy.

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This week, Zak and Aaron revisit the world of Marvel Rivals, albeit tangentially and under less than pleasant circumstances. In the wake of some unexpected and unfortunate layoffs at NetEase's Seattle-based studio, the duo noticed some hyperbolic headlines circulating online that not only felt slightly misleading, but also contrasted with the titles for similar articles about the much more severe job cuts recently suffered at the hand of Warner Bros.

So, they set out to have a (hopefully) nuanced discussion about the importance of headlines, what we should expect from good reporting, rage-baiting, and profit motives, among other things. 

Please, enjoy.

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This week on Some Patches Required, Zak and Aaron sit down to do something they've never done before: review an episode of another podcast. Then again, they've never encountered one that prominently features ex-Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick sharing anecdotes from his career, drumming up wild accusations against the CWA Union, and loudly eating celery into a microphone before today. Suffice it to say, they have some opinions to share.

Please, enjoy.

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This week, Zak and Aaron return to the world of gaming topics not as friends, but as rivals... Marvel Rivals™!

Inaccurate and misleading introductory statements aside, your intrepid hosts sit down to discuss the latest chart-topping game in the highly saturated hero shooter genre, Marvel©'s Marvel Rivals™, a Marvel© product, presented by Marvel©. More specifically, they dig into some of the issues inherent to the game's aggressive content release cadence and whether or not its current pace is sustainable without eventually sacrificing quality.

Please, enjoy.

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As 2025 begins in earnest, we have some phenomenal news for you! Everybody's favorite dewy salamander, Mark Zuckerberg, is going FINALLY going to rebuild trust in our most hallowed institutions, enrich your social life, and help stave off those pesky feelings of loneliness, isolation, and general ennui. How will he accomplish this, you ask? By flooding all of Meta's social media platforms with AI bots, of course!

This week, Zak and Aaron take a break from discussing the games industry to chat about why dumping a bunch of artificial intelligence all over Facebook and Instagram is, in fact, a terrible idea. From eroding people's ability to trust in anything to creating even more division during a tumultuous time, Meta's big bet on AI profiles stands to cause magnitudes more problems than it will solve.

Content Warning: Self-harm - 32:08 - 36:47

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Xbox and PlayStation, two brands locked in what may be an eternal conflict for market superiority, seem to have found yet another field on which to clash: the rapidly growing world of handheld gaming. 

This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to discuss the landscape for handhelds at the end of 2024, what new entries from Sony and Microsoft may look like, and what each is likely to do to achieve success. They also dig into the key differences between handheld consoles and handheld gaming PCs, as well as how those key factors position each competitor in a space that already includes both Nintendo and Valve.

Please, enjoy.

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Well, would you look at that? It's consolidation time again in the games industry! Who knew 15 minutes could pass so fast?

Jokes aside, this is a big one: Sony is looking to acquire Kadokawa Corporation, which is best known as the owner of From Software, the industry titan behind generation-defining hits like Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring.

This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to discuss why this particular buyout could be a game-changing deal, from expanding Sony's media empire even further in the realms of anime and manga to what a PlayStation-exclusive future may look like for one of the most beloved studios on the planet.

Please, enjoy.

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This week, Zak and Aaron take some time to discuss Grand Theft Auto VI, but not in the "WHEN FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WILL IT FINALLY RELEASE" way to which you may be accustomed on the internet. Instead, they dig into the industry-wide perception that Rockstar's newest will be some sort of savior for the whole business of games.

Between driving the adoption of current-gen hardware and giving the industry at large a billion-plus dollar shot in the arm, the hopes for GTA VI are sky-high. But how did we end up relying on one title to pull the whole medium out of the doldrums? And is it a good idea to do so in the first place?

Please, enjoy.

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This week, Zak and Aaron take some time to discuss the newly renamed Halo Studios (so long, 343! We're sure Xbox didn't rename you because of all that bad press you've accumulated!) and chat about some of the big changes coming down the pipe for future titles. The most notable of these is the sunsetting of the Slipspace engine in favor of the shiny and ever-so-popular Unreal Engine 5, which will power all new Halo installments for the foreseeable future. 

But will this fresh direction be enough to shake off the franchise's funk? Only time will tell.

Please, enjoy.

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Brace yourselves for a shocking revelation: Ubisoft is in serious trouble again. Or still... or, maybe, both.

This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to discuss the newest plan to wrest control of the storied French studio/publisher away from the Guillemot family — this time at the hands of activist-investor group AJ Investments — and what that all-too-possible future may look like. They also discuss Ubisoft's many failures, a few of its more telling strategy shifts, and just how we got here in the first place.

Please, enjoy.

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This week, Zak and Aaron sit down with notable Austinite John Henderson, who has shipped numerous games and made a name for himself in the local development community for hosting Game Dev Beer Night and supporting aspiring professionals as they try to make sense of their careers.

John was kind enough to share his insights on a wide range of topics from advice on finding fulfillment in your job to maintaining motivation to the state of the industry at large. A few technical difficulties during the recording may have changed the shape of this episode a bit, but John's perspective and honest opinions are well worth the listen.

Also, apparently Aaron doesn't know what the word "erstwhile" means, and he deserves your scorn and derision.

Please, enjoy.

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Alas, poor Concord, we hardly knew thee.

That's right, Sony's next big foray into the wild world of live service shooters, is no more. And the real kicker? It barely lasted two weeks.

This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to discuss the unprecedented failure of Concord. In addition to enumerating some of the factors that led to the AAA game's unceremonious sunsetting (namely questionable character design and a general lack of innovation in a decade-old genre), our intrepid hosts also speculate on the title's tentative future.

Just for good measure, they also spend some time dunking on internet imbeciles who blame this mess on Concord being "too woke."

Please, enjoy.

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When you look at a game like Monopoly Go!, your first thought is probably not that its marketing budget was nearly twice the annual GDP of the Marshall Islands. That's right, Hasbro and Scopley spent a borderline-obscene $500 million to get their new mobile title in front of as many eyes as possible... and it seems to have worked. 

This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to talk about the cost of marketing games both huge and humble, and why the mobile sector tends to see such enormous price tags when compared to their AAA counterparts.

Please, enjoy.

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Xbox Game Pass has been called the best deal in gaming, and for a while that was hard to dispute. But the times are changing, and with it comes a new era for Microsoft's subscription service - one that costs considerably more than it used to.

This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to discuss the Xbox Game Pass price hike, and why it's far more significant than it may seem at face value. Between the impact of Call of Duty, flagging growth numbers, freefalling console sales, and the full weight of the Activision Blizzard merger all in play at once, there's a lot to unpack here.

Please, enjoy.

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Every few years, notoriously sadistic game studio From Software releases a new title, and with it comes a heated debate about game difficulty. Well, that time has come again with the launch of Shadow of the Erdtree, the one and only (massive) expansion for auteur director Hidetaka Miyazaki's magnum opus, Elden Ring.

So, with some people conflating the DLC's brutal skill requirements with a legitimate accessibility issue, Zak and Aaron sat down to discuss game difficulty, easy modes, artistic integrity, and the difference between impairments and impediments. Aaron also complains a lot about the Tree Sentinal. So there's that.

Please, enjoy.

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Among the bombastic trailers showcased in the Xbox showcase at Not E3™ — er, I mean Summer Game Fest™ — was one particular reveal that some fans have been waiting for for the better part of a decade: Dragon Age: The Veilguard. And boy oh boy, was it ever a bewildering first look.

This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to discuss their impressions of the newest iteration of Dragon Age 4, and why it seems to feel so little like the beloved games that came before it. They also discuss what's lost when IPs that used to have a strong identity throw what made them unique by the wayside in favor of mass appeal.

Please, enjoy.

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