The VGBees Podcast

Hey! It's a brand new show here on The VGBees Podcast feed. We'll be taking the time every once in a while to sit down and go deep with interesting figures around the games industry and beyond. Our very first guest is Phil Salvador, Library Director of the Video Game History Foundation. 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:05 What is the Video Game History Foundation? 00:03:45 What has surprised Phil the most abo...

This week, Lotus, Niki, and John dive deep into the end of physical discs for Sony (and likely Xbox), the impending closures of the PS3/Vita digital stores, and the potential for Arkane to be on the Xbox reset chopping block. 00:00:00 Intro & everything you need to know about donuts 00:18:50 Sony stopping disc support in 2028 ; the gang goes long on the loss of physical games media 01:06:30 So...

This week, John and Niki discuss the biggest news of the gaming week, including Grand Theft Auto VI edition details, Steam Machine details, and more price hikes for Xbox consoles. 00:00:00 Intro & when it became Turkiye 00:12:30 Steam Machine is in the wild and available for waitlisting 00:28:13 Xbox consoles increase in price again 00:33:08 Grand Theft Auto VI isn't on disc and somehow people...

This week, John , Niki , and Lotus go very long on this week's seismic Xbox news, including the numerous studio closures on the table, key departures, and Microsoft CEO's Satya Nadella's curious take on why their gaming arm is struggling. 00:00:00 Intro & Lotus' Big Saturday 00:11:10 South of Midnight developer Compulsion Games is the unsurprising yet disappointing first studio to confirm poss...

Lotus , Niki , and John recovered from Summer Game Fest 2026 and reconvened (in home studios, not John's car) to discuss an extremely busy news week, including Xbox preparing major layoffs, Nintendo Direct revealing the Ocarina of Time remake, and more information dropping about Pokemon Go and its role in data gathering for defense purposes. 00:00:00 Intro & how waffle fries are made Go to nog...

Join Niki and John from Los Angeles as they debrief from a lively Summer Game Fest 2026. At this point, most embargoes were still in effect, but we hope you enjoy discussion regarding: Blood Dungeon , Messhof's latest game Sonic Pico Park The Games Business interview with Matthew Ball bad hotel fish tacos Thanks for listening! Please leave us a review! We'll read it on the show and it helps us out...

Folks, our schedules were so packed that John & Niki had to join Lotus from the car again. Sorry! This week, it's all about Summer Game Fest 2026 Showcase, which featured reveals of Resident Evil Veronica , Final Fantasy VII Revelation , and Tupac appearing in Stranger Than Heaven . Time stamps and more SGF bonus episodes coming soon! Thanks for listening! Please leave us a review! We'll read...

John and Lotus are joined this week by Jeff Gerstmann to discuss the week's biggest games news, including: The Witcher 3 's surprising expansion coming in 2027, Steam Deck's massive price hikes, and what we thought of 007 First Light . 00:00:00 Intro & podcasting at yourself 00:08:56 The Witcher 3 is getting new DLC in 2027 00:13:10 A moment for Unreal Engine 6 00:15:57 Ikaruga creator's next...

John , Lotus , and Niki discuss the biggest news of the week, including Embracer's head-scratching restructure, Destiny 2's final update, and PlayStation Plus price hikes. 00:00:00 Intro & Niki Buys a Porsche 00:09:50 Terraria celebrates 15 years of absolutely bonkers player counts 00:25:15 Tom Kane passes away at 64 00:26:41 PlayStation Plus gets price hikes 00:35:47 US National Recording Reg...

Content Warning for graphic medical procedures, assault, sexual assault, suicide, and death in this episode. The Pitt is a show with a lot of tough ingredients thrown into a stew--we try to navigate these with tact and care but be forewarned the entire episode has a lot of potentially triggering discussion. GameDeveloper.com Editor-in-Chief (and Polygon, Waypoint, and Fanbyte alum) Danielle Riende...

Lotus and John discuss the biggest games news of the week, including Subnautica 2 creating a big bonus problem for KRAFTON's CEO, leaked Xbox controllers, and Marathon 's interesting PVE-focused roadmap. 00:00:00 Intro & Buc-ees Fare 00:10:05 Subnautica 2 's massive sales creates an interesting problem for KRAFTON's CEO 00:13:15 Steam Controllers look bad, feel good, and scream when you drop t...

Niki, Lotus, and John embark on a "no bummers" episode of the show, complete with discussions about the new Star Fox game, LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight 's endless charm, and Mina the Hollower 's long-awaited release date. 00:00:00 Intro & John's parking lot predicament 00:12:15 Star Fox 64 Remake 00:17:15 Mina the Hollower gets a release date at long last 00:19:16 Copilot removed fro...

NOTE: This bonus episode contains discussions of medical trauma, sexual assault, addiction, child abuse, mass shootings, and generally some sad stories about real life emergencies. It’s hard to avoid those topics when discussing this television show, so if you need to duck out and catch the next regular bonus, we totally get it. Additional note! This is a bonus episode of the show from 2025--we're...

Niki , Lotus , and John celebrate 100 episodes and discuss GameStop's potential purchase of eBay, usTwo's CEO saying some wild stuff into a microphone, the final death of Paste Games, and more! 00:00:00 Intros & At Least It's Friday 00:06:05 GameStop could be prepping for an eBay takeover 00:13:50 Saudi Arabia is divesting from some entertainment properties 00:20:36 Atari acquires emulation st...

Lotus & John discuss the lawsuit against Mr. Beast, Xbox Game Pass carving out Call of Duty , Playdate's interesting AI policy, and much more! VGBees is 100% listener-supported. Join The Hive for bonus content, exclusive Discord access, and input on future content. https://vgbees.com/join 00:00:00 Intro 00:05:46 Mr. Beast sued by former employee 00:13:11 Ludum Dare to "end" in 2028 00:18:10 Pl...

SUPPORT US BY JOINING THE HIVE! Hi there! Lotus is still in space teaching the aliens about baseball (they like it!), while Niki and John are earthbound to discuss the week's biggest stories in games, including: Disney lays off 1,000; Marvel visual effects gutted Disney quietly delists games from Steam Xenosaga Pied Piper , somehow, is coming to Switch and PC Iron Galaxy lays off unknown number of...

Support us by joining The Hive! This week, Lotus repaired the toilets aboard the Artemis II on its way safely (!!!!) back to Earth. Niki and John were grounded, however, and came together to discuss the biggest games news of the week. Here's the run of show: Is Sid Meier the Ken Burns of video games? The Pacers Couple is fine and good Epic is in deep with Disney and making an extraction shooter Pe...

Support us by becoming a member of The Hive ! With Niki on board the Artemis II to fix their Outlook situation , Lotus and John tackle the news and games of the week, including: Eidos-Montreal lays off 124 employees Stellar Blade's Shift Up acquires Shinji Mikami's brand new studio Stormgate loses online support because their server provider was bought by an AI company US Patent Office rejects ove...

Support us by joining The Hive! This week, Lotus , Niki , and John contemplate Nintendo's strange (but maybe deliberate) choice to launch Animal Crossing 's Switch 2 edition, Pokemon Pokopia , and Tomodachi Life in one tidy two month stretch. Also: Epic lays off 1,000 due to Fortnite "underperforming" OpenAI cans Sora and Disney exits investment Alex from Street Fighter 6 married his adopted siste...

Support Us! Join The Hive! This week, the crew gets completely redrawn on the fly by Nvidia's new AI-powered technology that everyone besides Digital Foundry seems to hate! How do they look? So lifelike, I bet. While getting yassified (and polluting water sources near data centers!), John , Niki , and Lotus discuss: DLSS 5 and its introduction to the world Why everyone hates DLSS 5 Jensen Huang's...

Support us by joining The Hive ! This week, Niki , Lotus , and John played some great games and took a full week off from games news because there just wasn't anything to talk about! What's that? [holds earpiece] I'm being told there was a lot of news this week. Okay. Well. Here's what they talked about, I guess! Sony testing dynamic pricing everywhere but Japan EA conducting layoffs at Battlefiel...

This week, Niki , Lotus , and John reconvene to rejoice over what seems like a masterpiece in the Pokémon oeuvre. But first, lots of big news, including: Nintendo sues the US government over tariffs Yoshi gets a bobblehead night with the LA Dodgers Netflix CEO thinks $16b will be cut at Warner Bros after Paramount purchase Japan's labor laws obfuscate games industry turmoil Unity cutting access to...

On this week's show, the crew deals with several major post-scripts from last week's jam-packed news discussion block. Fortunately, Lotus , Niki , and John are joined by certified GOAT Michael Higham to unpack it all. Michael beat Resident Evil Requiem and John played it on Switch 2 The global storage shortage gets very real with Seagate and Western Digital allocating stock of hard drives through...

Support us by joining The Hive! This week's show was packed to the gills with discussion-worthy topics and that was before Phil Spencer announced his retirement , Sarah Bond resigned, and Asha Sharma ascended the Xbox throne. From there, Lotus , Niki , and John discussed: Sony shutting down Bluepoint Tencent allegedly funded Highguard Castlevania franchise and Metal Gear Solid V dev Shutaro Ida pa...

SUPPORT US BY JOINING THE HIVE Folks, this week was VERY jam-packed with discussion-worthy games news and that was BEFORE we even welcomed Game Informer's Charles Harte to the show. Together, Lotus , Niki , John , and Charles discussed: Mewgenics' blend of deep, enjoyable tactical combat and off-putting breeding mechanics The, let's call them rancid, vibes of Mewgenics' central thesis Mewgenics' c...