The Bobby Blackwolf Show

We talk more about the FIFA World Cup and the matches I attended in Atlanta. Jersey Jack Pinball has announced a new pinball machine based on Sonic The Hedgehog, and the headlines once again focus on the high price of owning pinball. Find a pinball arcade near you and request it so you can play it for just a dollar or two! The Steam Machine has launched with a price much higher than Valve initiall...

I went to two World Cup matches this week, so we start the show talking about sports and the cultural exchange that is happening. We remember Bobby Prince, the composer who worked on many 90's era DOS games like Doom and Commander Keen. He passed away at the age of 81. Xbox is possibly closing Double Fine, Compulsion Games, and Ninja Theory, in order to "reset" the business. Unreal Engine 6 will b...

Valve will no longer sell physical gift cards in retail locations because of scammers using the cards to steal innocent people's money. Xbox has said that more layoffs and studio closures are coming to "reset" the business. The ESA says that the No Fakes act that is currently going through congress to regulate "digital replicas" will "destroy the game industry". This leads into a discussion of how...

Summer Game Fest was this week, so we talk about the games that Sony, Microsoft, and third parties showed at this Not-E3 week. Included in this is the whiplash of 1666: Amsterdam between the trailer and the playable prologue, the difference between Tupac's estate and his family, and my hopeful take on Persona 6's direction. Crazy Taxi: World Tour was also announced, but has a disclaimer that gener...

The Doom soundtrack has been inducted into the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry! Stern Pinball has announced their new pinball machine based on the Transformers cartoon series, and why you don't need to spend thousands of dollars to play it. Sony has announced that they will no longer be porting their single-player games to PC, keeping them PS5 exclusive. Then we talk about more t...

I played through Mixtape via Xbox Game Pass and I enjoyed it - but it's not going to be my GOTY and it didn't really reflect on my personal experience growing up in that time period. But you can wait for a sale - Mixtape's music licenses were agreed to in perpetuity, so the game will not be delisted. I then talk a lot about Forza Horizon 6, and how we've started to enter the roster update phase of...

I got the Steam Controller, and give my early impressions, as well as bemoan the fact that it can only be used in Steam and not in any other PC gaming content, such as games from Xbox Game Pass or Play Anywhere. Valve is implementing a reservation queue for future shipments of the Steam Controller due to the popularity of the first wave of orders. Nintendo has increased the price of the Switch 2 d...

I was in Indiana visiting in-laws last week, and this led to a discussion of "third spaces", and a third space I wish was near me - a coffee and board gaming space in Greenfield, Indiana called Hitherto Coffee & Gaming Parlour. The Steam Controller went on sale the day after we went live (and sold out almost instantly) - but the trick is to get funds into your Steam Wallet beforehand so you're not...

Sorry this was uploaded weeks late - a lot of things happened. We're getting caught up very quickly, though! I was at a tech conference this past week and it was a dystopia regarding agentic AI...and the agents didn't even work properly! While I was in town, I visited the new Nintendo San Francisco store! On the flight home, I started playing Tomodachi Life: Living The Dream, and I'm not as drawn...

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 an...

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...

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...

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 l...

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...

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 hardwar...

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...

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 for...

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 order...

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 a...

Dice and Diversions, a tabletop/board gaming convention in Atlanta, has been postponed to February due to the ice storm. Forza Horizon 6 was shown off on the Xbox Developer Direct, but no, you will not be flying a Gundam. I got the PlayStation VR2 PC Adapter, and getting the controllers to work over Bluetooth was a multi-day struggle. A VR mod for Cyberpunk 2077 was removed due to CD Projekt Red n...

I was going to be at a tabletop/board game convention next weekend in Atlanta called Dice & Diversions, however mid-week it was postponed to Feburary. An Alternate Reality Game released on Steam in 2018 recently got a lot of negative reviews for being "too hard" because apparently younger people can't send an email correctly. Meta has exited the VR Gaming business, shutting down three of its VR ga...

I am back from Awesome Games Done Quick 2026, where we raised over $2.4 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation! I talk about the runs that I hosted, and even quasi-commentated, as was the case with the maimai DX PRiSM Plus arcade showcase. I also talk about AGDQ's move to Atlanta for 2027, and why the city is more welcoming than many people not from around here are led to believe. LEGO has anno...

I'm hosting at Awesome Games Done Quick 2026 next week! We remember Vince Zampella, who we tragically lost this week. He was a force in the gaming industry, even if you weren't someone who regularly played the games he brought to us. Nvidia has announced that a 100 hour per month limit is coming to ALL GeForce Now customers starting January 1st, where previously it was only for new subscribers. I...

I'm hosting at Awesome Games Done Quick 2026 the first week of January - tune in! I'm also hosting the English Restream of RTA In Japan Winter 2025 THIS WEEK! Reviews are out for the Commodore 64 Ultimate, and I wish I had bought one earlier so I would have it now. The Video Game History Foundation has released a bunch of ROMs of the 90's era Sega Channel, so you can relive the 90's goodness on yo...

I'm going to be a host at Awesome Games Done Quick 2026, and I can finally announce when! I'll be hosting Mario Kart World, Jak 3, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, Super Metroid, and maimai DX PRiSM Plus! The rest of this episode is actually about our trip to Orlando's theme parks, focusing on Super Nintendo World at Epic Universe, but we do talk a little bit about the newer rides at the Disney parks....