The VGBees Podcast

This week, Lotus and John (complete with the worst sinus infection you've ever heard, sorry) dove right into the biggest news stories of the week, including the closure of BioWare, 350 additional layoffs across EA, and Steam Next Fest demos being removed out of fear of AI cloning (which we have questions about) 00:00:00 Intro & yes, he knows he sounds like Andre the Giant 00:04:32 Steam Next F...

This week, John, Niki, and (for about an hour, at least) Lotus ponder what makes a good games outlet name. Also, perhaps more importantly, Epic's full-throttle commitment to AI game production, Grand Theft Auto VI's potential PC release in Q1 2027, and more Ubisoft studio closures. 00:00:00 Intro & The Pepsi Challenge 00:11:00 Chris Kerr's Vertical Slice launches (and a very, very silly detour...

This week, Lotus, Niki, and John dove very deep into the surprisingly busy week of games news, including Kotaku's fascinating report about Double Fine's union misfire, Bobby Kotick joining the Skydance Board, and Star Wars Zero Company dev returning more than have their previously furloughed workers. 00:00:00 Intro & vaccine misinformation 00:12:30 Skydance's new games division 00:20:25 Skydan...

On this week's episode, the crew handle a slow news week by going very, very deep on Mike Tomlin's Minecraft city, 2XKO's missed concurrent player target, and impressions of cozy-yet-hardcore Dressmaker . 00:00:00 Intro, John's bad day, pallbearers for hire 00:26:45 2XKO's wild swing and miss for concurrent players 00:41:09 Mike Tomlin's Minecraft city inspired some big, big opinions from the crew...

This week, Lotus, John, and Niki tackle a very busy week of games news, including a new round of Xbox layoffs, Xbox studio consolidation, Activision making the next Halo game, and Bungie's unvaulting of Destiny 2 content. 00:00:00 Intro & Niki's big trip 00:14:30 Xbox's latest layoffs and consolidations 00:50:42 Undead Labs goes independent; State of Decay 3 still aiming for 2027 release 00:56...

This week, Niki, John, and Lotus discussed the biggest news stories of the week, including a look at Zach Cregger's Resident Evil , numerous head-scratching announcements from BlizzCon, and the news that Roblox is working toward a future providing standalone games to multiple platforms. 00:00:00 Intro & sorting through John's will 00:11:30 BlizzCon 2026: games that might not come out and what...

This week, John, Niki, and Lotus dove into both Nintendo Directs, the stunning news that Sony is dropping Hideo Kojima's next projects, and Blizzard's new union formation just ahead of Blizzcon. 00:00:00 Intro & our new tagline 00:10:03 Ocarina of Time is changing for modern audiences 00:34:54 Samus is hungry in Metroid Ravenous 00:37:00 Kirby and the World Beyond is perhaps the biggest advent...

This week, Lotus, Niki, and John discuss the Star Wars Zero Company furloughs, the new limits on Xbox Cloud for Game Pass, and the explosive Pablo Torre stories have the hosts asking, "why don't we have this kind of investigative journalism in games?" 00:00:00 Intro & John's extremely beautiful voice 00:07:18 Star Wars Zero Company devs furloughed ahead of game's release 00:15:30 SteamDB is no...

This week, Niki, John, and Lotus did their homework on the bizarrely-edited Grand Theft Auto VI reveal on Netflix and also dove into Gamescom announcements, like The Witcher 3 Remastered . 00:00:00 Intro & A Condensed History of How We Know Each Other 00:14:30 Grand Theft Auto VI is every verb 00:44:09 Star Citizen's Squadron 42 delayed again 00:48:25 The Witcher 3 Songs of the Past unearths a...

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 ch...

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 ha...

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 an...

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...

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...

This week, Niki, Lotus, and John discuss the extremely convenient news dump regarding beloved games in the Fallout franchise, other Xbox teams facing decimation in the initial layoffs, and the God of War show's choice to recast its Kratos. 00:00:00 Intro, new dog, blood stuff, & kidneys 00:22:53 Latin America ID@Xbox teams decimated by layoffs 00:32:48 Inside look at Xbox layoffs from people e...

Last year, we chatted with Joe from hit YouTube channel Joe Is Hungry . Now that we have this fun new interview format show officially on the feed, I decided it was time to have him back on! 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:33 Joe's wife still plays games 00:02:50 Why do gaming communities seem to gravitate toward Joe? 00:08:10 Does Joe keep tabs on other food reviewers? 00:11:50 What does attention from othe...

This week, Niki, Lotus, and John address the sweeping, disastrous layoffs and closures stemming from the "reset" Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has started. 00:00:00 Intro & Cup Talk 00:11:40 Xbox layoffs by the numbers 00:14:55 Id Software decimated by the moves 00:18:52 Obsidian loses staff and shifts focus to Fallout (a previous report that Avowed 2 has been canceled has been refuted by the developer...

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...