Podcasts about Polygon

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On a very special public bonus of the show, John is joined by fellow disabled games media person Grant Stoner (IGN, Polygon, VGBees) to celebrate Disability Pride Month! How do they celebrate? By regaling each other with tales of crippledom from yesterday and today! Also:The importance of sources in investigative journalismAdvice for disabled writers working in the fieldThe most out of pocket interactions we've had as disabled people (oops, all Christian mysticism!)The joy of breaking outside of accessibility coverage (to some extent)The excitement of community reportingHow layoffs disproportionately affect disabled workersAnd much more!We also answer some of your HIVE QUESTIONS from our Discord. We also compare head and torso sizes/shapes. You're welcome!

Our Summer of Superheroes reaches its climax with arguably the most important movie in the genre's history: Richard Donner's 1978 film Superman, starring Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, Margot Kidder, and a firmly on-book Marlon Brando. Join in as we discuss the geophysics of Lex Luthor's evil plot, the other attempts to put Superman in cinemas, the nearly two-year shoot, and our favorite real estate schemes. Plus: What ideas did Brando have to reduce his workload? Did Donner have a phone in his bathroom? What was the original plan for the time travel finale? And, most importantly, is Clark Kent more super or more man? Make sure to rate, review, and subscribe! Next week: The 400 Blows (1959)-----------------------------------------------------Key sources and links for this episode:Which Lie Did I Tell? More Adventures in the Screen Trade by William Goldman (2000)The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture by Glen Weldon (2016)Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Luen Yang and Gurihiru (2019)Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story (2024)Taking Flight: The Development of Superman (2001)Making Superman: Filming the Legend (2001)Roger Ebert's four-star review of Superman (1978)"The Making of Superman" (EMPIRE Magazine)Interview with Producer Ilya Salkind by Barry M. Frieman for SupermanHomePage.com"Nick Nolte Doesn't Care about Legacy, and Talks Julia Roberts Feud" (Insider)"The Superman Story that Set the Ku Klux Klan Back Years is Now a Comic" (Polygon)

In this Geek Freaks Headlines episode, we break down the sweeping layoffs hitting Microsoft's gaming division. Host Frank Lourence dives into the cancellation of major titles like Everwild and the Perfect Dark reboot, the studios impacted (including Bethesda's London office), and why King and Blizzard are taking heavy hits. We also take a moment to reflect on how repeated layoffs are reshaping the industry, with 9,100 employees affected in this latest round. All info sourced from Polygon, IGN, and internal memos.Timestamps and Topics:00:00 Microsoft lays off 9,100 employees, 4% of its workforce00:10 King reportedly hit hardest by the cuts00:18 Statement from Phil Spencer and industry-wide challenges00:23 Rare cancels Everwild, Perfect Dark reboot scrapped00:30 Bethesda London and Blizzard impacted00:36 Warcraft Rumble deprioritized00:41 A pattern of layoffs: January 2024, September 2024, May 202500:51 Closing thoughts and what's nextKey Takeaways:Microsoft has laid off 9,100 employees, with many from Xbox Game Studios.King, Rare, Blizzard, and Bethesda were among the hardest hit.Everwild and the Perfect Dark reboot have been cancelled.Warcraft Rumble is being shelved.This is one of several large rounds of layoffs Microsoft has done since early 2024.The gaming industry is in a precarious state, with restructuring happening across major publishers.Quotes:“Rare had to cancel their upcoming Everwild game. The Perfect Dark reboot is scrapped. That whole studio gone now.”“Blizzard... they're going to be putting Warcraft Rumble on the backburner.”“We're seeing these layoffs, and it's hard times hitting across the entire gaming sector.”Call to Action:If you want to stay updated on major gaming industry changes like this one, make sure to subscribe to Geek Freaks Headlines. Leave us a review, share the episode, and join the conversation using #GeekFreaksPodcast.Links and Resources:News Source: https://geekfreakspodcast.comFollow Us:

Jon Jordan talks to MSquared CEO Rob Whitehead about the company's attempt to build a PlayFab for web3 gaming, which combined with the Somnia blockchain, will supercharge the sector with more onchain data that's more composable. [2:50] Rob Whitehead's current roles at Improbable and MSquared.[3:56] Rob's early career as a teenaged virtual arms dealer in Second Life.[4:59] How Improbable started work on what became MSquared during Covid lockdown.[8:15] How MSquared is different to existing multiplayer technologies for gaming?[8:40] Current tech can only handle about 100 players because data quadruples per extra player added.[9:08] MSquared uses a smart layer optimizing a cluster of cloud-based computers to boost capacity.[11:55] Why MSquared started working with Yuga Labs for its Otherside metaverse.[15:07] Blockchain enables interoperability but that's not enough and you can't put everything onchain.[17:43] How the Somnia blockchain is designed to be the "fastest EVM blockchain".[19:24] Rob's journey into crypto - 'a deepy humbling experience'. "Things are stupid until they're not".[23:18] Somnia's speed enables a whole new category of experiences to be built.[25:11] Once you unlock a new capability, you then have to learn what to do with it.[26:03] "What's the maximal thing you could ever put on a blockchain?"[28:21] The first version of Chunked peaked at around 1,000 concurrent players onchain.[30:01] "If you can make fully onchain Minecraft on Somnia, what else can you do?"[32:18] DeFi has been a success. We're trying to build those Lego blocks for web3 gaming.[34:24] We're trying to build a PlayFab for web3 gaming. [36:20] We need a decentralized Steam where you can see all your items and progression.[37:08] MSquared's OmniChain Indexer works across ApeChain, Somnia, Polygon, Ethereum etc.[39:39] Chunked v2.0 is also going to be released very soon, plus a potential mainnet version too.

This week, Marc Boiron (CEO, Polygon Labs) and Sandeep Nailwal (CEO, Polygon Foundation) joined Yano to dive into all the happenings at Polygon, their comeback plan, how the industry has shifted since last cycle, the best business models currently for chains and how Katana and the Agglayer will push not only the project, but crypto forward. -- Start your day with crypto news, analysis and data from Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire?utm_source=podcasts -- Follow Marc - https://x.com/0xMarcB Follow Sandeep - https://x.com/sandeepnailwal Follow Jason: https://x.com/JasonYanowitz Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod -- Join the Empire Telegram: https://t.me/+CaCYvTOB4Eg1OWJh -- SKALE is the next evolution in Layer 1 blockchains with a gas-free invisible user experience, instant finality, high speed, and robust security. SKALE is built different as it allows for limitless scalability and has already saved its 50 Million users over $11 Billion in gas fees. SKALE is high-performance and cost-effective, making it ideal for compute-intensive applications like AI, gaming, and consumer-facing dApps. Learn more at https://skale.space and stay up to date with the gas-free invisible blockchain on X at @skalenetwork -- Crypto never sleeps. So we built an Al analyst that never blinks.Meet Focal by FalconX: a GenAI insights engine built for institutional crypto.Already used by 80+ funds managing $10B+ in AUM.- Screen, chart, and analyze 1300+ tokens- Summarize market-moving news instantly- Integrates data from CoinGecko, Kaito, Token Terminal, Tokenomist, The TieGet started today: https://askfocal.com -- Ledn is the leading platform for Bitcoin-backed loans, offering a secure and transparent way to unlock liquidity without selling your Bitcoin. Ledn has issued over $9 billion in loans since 2018 and has never lost a single satoshi of client assets, earning a reputation as the name you can trust in the crypto space.Visit https://www.ledn.io to learn more. -- Chapters: 00:00 Intro 01:58 The Industry Today, As A Builder 06:45 Easier/More Difficult Than Last Cycle 15:36 Ads (Skale) 16:28 Sandeep + Polygon Foundation 21:52 2 Business Models For Chains 36:54 Ads (Skale) 37:47 Katana Explored 46:03 Why Katana 55:26 Ads (Falcon x,LEDN) 01:09:53 Polygon's Future Vision — Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

Shares of Circle, an issuer of stablecoin, have gained more than 500% since the company's blockbuster public debut on June 5 as enthusiasm surrounding crypto builds. Could TradFi now be learning about Defi?~This episode is sponsored by Tangem~Tangem ➜ https://bit.ly/TangemPBNUse Code: "PBN" for Additional Discounts!Guest: Tim Warren, Host of Investing BrozInvesting Broz Youtube ➜ ‪‪https://www.youtube.com/@investingbrozFollow on Twitter ➜ @tims_ta  00:00 Intro00:18 Sponsor: Tangem01:13 Powell vs Trump03:44 Trump is guaranteeing uncertainty05:35 Genius Act06:30 Ethereum analysis10:18 Uniswap analysis12:40 Matt Hougan: $UNI is undervalued14:15 Aerodrome analysis17:12 Arbitrum analysis20:14 Avalanche analysis22:24 $SBET analysis20:05 Outro#Ethereum #Bitcoin #Crypto~DeFi Altcoin Summer?

We're off this week because of Juneteenth, but back in February, Nathan released a book! About Twitch! As part of that, he hosted a launch event at Wonderville in Brooklyn, NY with a panel featuring Chris and Gita, as well Polygon's Simone de Rochefort. It was basically a live episode of Aftermafh Hours, so here it is now, as an episode of Aftermath Hours. Enjoy!Credits- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Gita Jackson, & special guest Simone de Rochefort- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude- Subscribe to Aftermath!About The ShowAftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that's too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris' frankly incredible number of special interests. Sometimes we even bring on guests from both inside and outside the video game industry! I don't know what else to tell you; it's a great time. Simply by reading this description, you're already wasting time that you could be spending listening to the show. Head to aftermath.site for more info. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

With websites covering topics like entertainment (ScreenRant), gaming (Polygon) and automotive (CarBuzz), Valnet caters to users across a wide array of interests.But according to Ji Heon Kim, Valnet's head of monetization, Valnet realized it could create more value for its users by encouraging them to subscribe or authenticate themselves.Maybe a “mass scale” of users wouldn't sign up for their websites, but perhaps 10% would. And, as Kim puts it, that “10% would still be valuable, and we can do a lot with that 10%.”“We created more value to [those] users, more exclusive content and high-quality content,” Kim says. “All of that became an initiative on the content side for us to deliver a premium model and give users an incentive to sign up.”Kim further talked with The Current Podcast about balancing advertiser value, user experience and performance, which he says are “always affecting each other.” Episode TranscriptPlease note, this transcript  may contain minor inconsistencies compared to the episode audio.Damian Fowler (00:00):I'm Damian Fowler, and welcome to The Current Podcast. Today we're talking to one of the biggest digital publishers. You might not know by name, but you've definitely read their stuff. I'm talking about Net. The company behind Screen Rant, the Gamer, Kaleida make use of, and a bunch of other sites that rack up hundreds of millions of sessions every month. Joining me today is Ji Kim Valnet's, head of monetization. Ji'S been leading the charge on everything from supply path optimization to first party data to figuring out how to drive real revenue without compromising the reader experience. We'll get into some of the big shifts they've made in their tech stack and how they're bringing newly acquired brands like Polygon into their ecosystem and what other publishers can learn from their approach.Ji Kim (00:52):At Valnet, I'd like to think of us as a publishing powerhouse. We started very small. Our motto is humble and hungry. We like to remind ourselves that it's always good to keep a humble mindset. I've been at NET for 10 years and we've grown tremendously. We've went through a lot ups and downs, but even as we grow, we like to think that we're small and agile and the publications we range from automotive, gaming, technology, entertainment, but entertainment has always been our flagship, but we've been kind of branching outside of that and trying to expand more and more. And then we have some lifestyle brands as well as sports.Damian Fowler (01:35):Let's talk about a moment that changed the game for Net. Can you walk us through your, I guess we're going to talk about supply path optimization at first anyway, which is a hot topic around these parts and what work you did around supply path optimization, like cutting resellers and boosting direct inventory. Could you talk us through that a little?Ji Kim (01:57):It's an ongoing process. It's certainly, I think most people agree that SPO is not an easy thing to achieve. You can commit to it one shot, but that's much harder to do considering that there will be a revenue impact. So for us, we tried both ways. We took a few sites and we took the direct approach and we saw a pretty decent stability, and then some other sites did not, and then we have to kind of revert back to it. SPO, it was always a topic that was talked about but not well enforced. And tradedesk took a big initiative to push publishers towards it. And then we started working closely with Jounce Media as well, with Chris Kane started kind of talking through some of the ideas, how should we go about it? How do we retain the value and still achieve removing the resale alliance and keep our inventory as clean as possible?(02:51):But initially our outlook of SPO was about making our inventory as clean and transparent as possible. Net considers ourselves as a premium publisher and we want to make sure that the advertisers see that as well. So we were heading in that direction. But ultimately, I think the biggest challenge with SPO was it's impossible to do an AB test because you have one A TXT file and you can't test one setup with the resell alliance, one setup without. So that's been pretty challenging to understand where's the value going, where is it coming from? And even with the Resell Alliance, when you talk to the SSPs with Resell Alliance, they'll go, oh, these are PP deals. These are not just rebroadcasting and all this stuff. So trying to understand the granularity and all that details of what each resale align means was very difficult. But ultimately we know we have to go in that direction, but we know it's not going to happen overnight, so we're kind of just taking a step at a time.Damian Fowler (03:51):That's great. What would you say was the kind of catalyst or moment that sparked that shift?Ji Kim (03:57):We always talked about advertiser value. It is important to yield as much value as possible and get the performance that we need. We always think that advertiser value is important, and when we think about that, it's like you go through stages. You go, okay, viewability needs to be important. Let's get viewability up to above standard, above average, make sure our CTR is good, but it's high quality clicks. It's not just users just clicking on stuff. Then you go through the lines and eventually you get to SPOs. Make sure that advertisers know what inventory they're getting access to, what they're buying, and make sure that they're getting insights. The transparency is there. Then we've increased the value of our inventory.Damian Fowler (04:46):Yeah, I mean that's the key, right, obviously. And speaking of that, having made these changes, are you in a position to be able to see the kind of impact that they've had from a revenueJi Kim (04:58):Perspective? Honestly, I don't think I can everything, especially with these kinds of stuff, what I've learned is it doesn't change overnight. Let's say we remove all the reseller lines yesterday. Today, likely the performance is going to drop initially and maybe things recover over time, but there's so many moving parts that it's hard to associate the value towards SPO, and that's a lot of things that we do in this industry. But I think that's when we like to look at it as, you know what? Ultimately we are improving the quality of our inventory, so we will get rewarded at some point. And that's how you move forward. But with SPO, I think the other side is that it's not just about removing reseller lines. You also have to market yourself and tell the advertisers that, Hey, we have gone in this direction. We have removed the reseller lines. All of our inventory is direct. It's clean. And that part is also hard to do. We haven't spent a lot of time or resources into marketing ourselves, and that's why we talked about, people may not know net, but they know our brands. It's the same thing. It's like we are now making a big push to let people know who Val net is, and that's going to go in hand in hand with this stuff.Damian Fowler (06:21):In terms of that messaging around the surgery as it were you're doing on the supply path, does that land well with advertisers?Ji Kim (06:32):I think it's always positively looked at when you tell them, it's like everybody, it is never negative, but I don't know if actually if it's meaningful for them because at scale, they're buying at scale. So yeah, we're a big publisher, but they're also buying at multiple publishers. Maybe only small portion of their budgets come to us. So it's positive, but I don't know if it's all that meaningful to them. At least that's what I've felt.Damian Fowler (07:04):So in addition to the SPO, what other tweaks or changes are you as head of monetization looking at to basically bring in those ad dollars and keep readers satisfied, I suppose?Ji Kim (07:17):Yeah, so there's three things. So we looked at the advertiser value, but then there's the user experience and then the performance side. So always those three things, there's constantly affecting each other. Ad density is probably one of the biggest part of advertiser value and performance and user experience. So we are constantly trying to reduce our density, and we look at this metric impressions per session and request per session. So we look at that and injections our injections based on content length, a paragraph breaks and all that stuff. So we'll try to work with the content team to create optimal breaks. I'll have a little sit down session with the content team. The leads say, okay, this is how the admin injection works, and how you break out your content really does impact, because we won't break a paragraph in half to inject an ad. So there needs to be natural breaks for the ads to inject. So if you have massive paragraphs, we're going to have less ad injections, which is fine if the content works like that, but they also need to think about how all this stuff works.Damian Fowler (08:26):That's really interesting. I mean, I think that sweet spot between not being the Vegas strip, but also ads have to populate at the right time to have value.Ji Kim (08:35):For net, we've focused mostly on open market programmatic spend. We have a small direct initiative. This is something that we've been trying to grow, but when you don't have huge direct sales initiative and direct spend coming in, you kind of need the density because the CPMs that you get from open market is much lower. So we want to try to move away from that as much as possible. I don't think found that will ever be a publisher where we drive like 50% of the revenue from direct sales, but we want to grow it to maybe 15, 20%. And once we do that, we can yield higher CPMs, which allows us to reduce the density, which would be better for advertiser value, better for user experience, and we'll still get the performance that we need to kind of go forward.Damian Fowler (09:24):So it's a balance.Ji Kim (09:25):Yeah. Yeah. I think if we can drive higher CPMs, we would love to reduce density, but it's always the constant battle between the two of, okay, well we reduced density. Oh, we went too far. Okay, we got to bring it back a little bit.Damian Fowler (09:38):How difficult is it to kind of innovate in ad tech? This is a broader question, I guess given how fast things are changing, especially on the programmatic front,Ji Kim (09:47):It's been very, very difficult. Rapidly changing environment is definitely one of them, and you have to adapt quickly. For example, the video definition of having instream outstream, and then now there's a third definition of accompanying that stuff. When it happened, the enforcement happened quickly, so we had to adapt quickly, and that's difficult. But innovating is, I think, much more difficult than just adapting to the new policies and new rules. So many different ways to innovate pre, for example, you have the open source code, you build that, but there's so many customizations that you can do and even a single customization, you interpret how you should approach that topic and how you should build your tech. So you kind of have to talk to your developers and walk through. And our biggest challenge I would say was bridging the gap between developers and ad ops. I was like, because I am an ad ops guy, I understand programmatic landscape very well, but our developers do not. And I'm not a developer, I'm not a technical guy. Obviously through 10 years I've learned a lot of stuff, but still, if I needed to build something, I'm not going to be able to tell them exactly how to build it. So you need somebody in the middle that understands both sides,(11:03):And that was the most difficult part. And eventually we did find resources that they were able to bridge that gap and were able to build stuff. But ultimately, there's just so many different ways to build your product and you want to make sure that product that you build or tech stack that you build is going to keep that balance that you need between the user experience, the performance, and the density, everything that pertains to page speed as well. If you build it to be too slow, everything gets affected as well, and that's harder to tell. So yeah.Damian Fowler (11:37):So how have some of these technical changes influenced your broad and monetization philosophy?Ji Kim (11:43):Yeah, so I guess one of the things, if we talk about authentication, we talk about cookie deprecation and why authentication became so important to majority of the publishers. And I remember our thought process around authentication was pretty pessimistic, I would say. But eventually we said know what? We can create content or value for the users that's going to want them to sign up and want them to get authenticated. And we said we got to start somewhere. Ultimately, maybe we've become a little bit more realistic about what critical mass of a value would be if we're at, if we're expecting 50% of users will log in, that's not going to happen, but 10% is still very meaningful. So it was about our philosophy was changing, about our expectations changing and still understanding that 10% could be very valuable and we can do a lot with that 10%. So we created more value to the users are more exclusive content, high quality content, high quality videos. All of that stuff became an initiative on the content side for us to deliver the premium model and to give users the incentive to authenticate a sign up on.Damian Fowler (13:03):That's really interesting. I think one of the things that also I'm hearing is that you kind of have different audiences, but you're getting to understand your audiences. I mean, this strategy gives you more insight into who's coming.Ji Kim (13:15):Yeah. We also created what we call threads. They can talk about the article, talk about topics that we're discussing, and that really improved our engagement.Damian Fowler (13:30):As you look to the future, how do you think about, as it were, locking in some of these changes and this value that you see from this audience?Ji Kim (13:40):So I want to go back a little bit about innovating and how difficult it is. So I went through the stages of, okay, what am I focusing on to optimize to yield more value? And initially it was demand. Okay, we want to work with as many high quality as P as possible, but then you do work with all of them. There are going to be going to be one or two that come here and there, but generally speaking, they're not going to create incremental value. They'll just take a piece of pie that was taken by somebody else, not meaningful value. Then you work on ad tech innovation, all that stuff, and that we'll continuously work on that, but that also has lots of limitations, and you eventually reach a plateau point of say, you're not going to find a lot low hanging fruits. So now we come to premium inventory, which we need to learn our users, we need to learn who they are so we can offer these users to our advertisers to grow our PMP programmatic direct, as well as your conventional IO based direct deals that's going to yield as higher CPMs.Damian Fowler (14:53):Yeah, I mean, talk of premium inventories is characteristic of the moment we are in when it comes to programmatic sales for publishers.Ji Kim (15:02):Yeah.Damian Fowler (15:04):Let's draw back and look at the big picture and some of the kind of industry context. I guess think I'm correct in saying Valnet reach has more than 400 million sessions a month across its network. That's correct. And how do you think about that, that kind of scale when every property has its own audience profile and publishing rhythm?Ji Kim (15:30):Yeah, it's sometimes a bit overwhelming how much reach our sites have, but I always try to look at it as our advantage, and this is the opportunity that hasn't been tapped into, is that okay, we're 95% of our inventory is sold in the open market, and we have so much data that we could collect and leverage in order to drive higher value. And it's just looking at it, it's overwhelming, but you start to see the real value that hasn't been tapped into, and that's exciting, but it's also very, very difficult to manage all that information, manage that data, and use it properly. So yeah, I mean it excites me, but also I know how challenging it can be to create value through that. So we're taking one step at a time, even first party data collection. I wouldn't say we're crazy sophisticated, but we're keeping it a level that we know how to manage and understanding it well first and then starting to kind of grow a step-by-step.Damian Fowler (16:45):Yeah, I mean, I suppose the whole back and forth about third party cookies may have provided a spark. I know it lit a fire under the industry. Speaking of first party data, so that is a focus for you?Ji Kim (16:56):Yes, yes. But I believe when it was really a huge focus for the industry was when Google had first announced that they're going to deprecate third party cookies, and we had the initial moment of, oh, you know what? We also need to look into this, but we didn't want to panic. Our outlook was, I'm sure everybody went through the initial panic. We did too, but we didn't want to stay in that moment. And we said, okay, what's realistically going to happen for publishers like us? How much first party data can we collect and really sell because we don't have a huge direct sales initiative? And at that point we had none. And you can't grow direct sales overnight. It's a highly competitive environment, and you're entering that new market. You have to build relationships, you have to have crazy amount of salespeople that are constantly going out there representing balance inventory.(17:55):And we weren't set up for that, and we weren't willing to just fully invest everything into growing that at the time. So we said, well, maybe first party data isn't as important. Collecting first part data isn't as important as just understanding how to go about direct sales. So that's what we worked on. We've hired salespeople, we enter that space. I was very naive about how direct sales worked, and now we have a better understanding. We have good salespeople that understand our values as well. We don't want to just go out and sell anything and everything. We want to understand the creative types that we're also selling isn't going to impact user experience horribly and negatively. The high impact guys, the site scans when they're done, right, it's great user experience, but it could also go the other way. So we wanted to build a baseline first, and that's what we did the last few years. And now we can go after the first party data in a more sustainable way for us.Damian Fowler (18:56):Let's talk about your acquisition of Polygon from Vox Media. Speaking of inventory that expands the real estate, how does that property fit into what you're doing?Ji Kim (19:07):So Polygon, obviously, we go through a lot of due diligences. We look at different opportunities, and Polygon was an easy one to go through because we knew Polygon has great content, it has a great foundation of creating high quality content. But the difference was that Fox has a lot of direct sales. I can't remember the exact number, but it could have been 75%, 80% of their revenue was generated, direct sold inventory, and then 20% was open market. And for us, it would've been the other way around, flipped around even less. Maybe 95% open market, 5% directive. Initially when we acquired it would've been a hundred percent open market, but that's also why it excite us because it's a premium inventory that doesn't get seen in the open market. Open market buyers don't see the bid requests coming from that website as much. So we're super happy, but we knew this was a high quality inventory, high quality website, and we knew that there was a very small chance that it was going to go poorly.Damian Fowler (20:20):Interesting. When you buy a property like that, you're actually buying an audience to a certain extent.Ji Kim (20:25):Yeah, absolutely.Damian Fowler (20:27):Do you think about audiences as discreet to the publications or do you see crossover?Ji Kim (20:34):Crossover? Yeah, lots of crossover.Damian Fowler (20:37):Yeah. Alright. So I guess the big question here is for other publishers looking to upgrade this strategy that we're talking about, especially in this very complex environment, which is something you clearly understand very deeply, what's one piece of advice that you might offer?Ji Kim (20:54):I think you have to think about realistically what you should go after, what opportunities you should go after. So many things that come up right now, I think the big thing is curated media. And on our end, a lot of the SSPs and DSPs are doing the work for us. They going out and curating our inventory for us, and that's fine. But if you were to go after that and trying to grow it, but you don't really have the resources, it's easy to just kind of see everybody, what everyone else is doing, like, oh, I want a piece of that too, but it's not going to yield the value. Same value if you don't have the right resources in place if you're not focused on that opportunity. So my advice would be to understand which opportunities realistically are you able to get and have the right resources who are going to be passionate about that. Take accountability. That's huge, the accountability part. And that's not something you can just kind of force people. You have to believe that this person that's taking on this project can be really passionate and sink their teeth into it. If you got that, then go after those things. But it's too hard to go after every single opportunity there is. Even if seemingly it seems like a low hanging fruit. Nothing is really that simple in this industry.Damian Fowler (22:15):That's for sure. So finally, we're going to wrap this up with some what we call hot seat questions. So what's one thing you're obsessed with figuring out right now?Ji Kim (22:27):How to yield more value? No, no, no. I'll give a better answer than that right now. For me, it's how to grow direct sales sustainably and scale it in a way that we don't get too bloated. Because through acquisitions, one of the most valuable things that I get is insight. I get to see under the hood of a lot of publishers, small to medium to large, how they operate, what is their strategy and direct sales. I've learned some of the big publishers do it extremely well. It's a well-oiled machine, it's not bloated. They generate a ton of revenue, but some have a huge cost, and that's what we were afraid of. And right now it's very hard to do. So you need the right sales team, you need the right operational guys, you need account representation, you need reporting guide and all this stuff. And right now I am trying to find a way to scale it, but without having massive costs, just kind of take over and then expect this to yield value in the next year or two. I want that line to kind of grow together. And that's not an easy thing to do, obviously. And I'm looking for the right resources. I'm looking to build relationships with agencies with limited guys, just hustle through it and offer them our inventory, charm them, whatever it may take. But yeah, that's what I'm currently obsessed.Damian Fowler (24:01):Okay. What's still missing in the ad tech stack that you wish someone would build?Ji Kim (24:07):I don't know if this would fall under their ad tech stack, but I think we could really benefit from a bit more standardization around, it could be reporting and creatives. Maybe I'm speaking out of line because I'm on the inventory side, so I don't know everything that goes on the buy side and the creative side. But what I see is that there's so many different creatives that just either break the page, the creative's broken, it's too heavy, it slows down the page, and it's hard to target those and remove those. It can come through so many different channels. So if there is a bit more standardization around what kind of creatives are acceptable, I'm sure there is some or a standard already, but it needs to be honed in a bit more maybe.Damian Fowler (25:00):What's one thing advertisers misunderstand about monetizing Publish it inventory today?Ji Kim (25:08):So I thought about this and something that it's more of my frustration around advertisers perspective. I understand it, but a bit more frustration because it's hard to create context around it, which is brand safety. I understand the brand side. I advertise side on why they wouldn't want to associate their brand with certain content, but brand safety is police by keyword list and it's very restrictive. And some of the,Damian Fowler (25:37):It's one toolJi Kim (25:38):And it's like, okay, and we have gaming sites that will, a lot of gaming, natural will talk about shooting, but some of the game developers won't want to associate with those articles. And it's like, hang on, hang on. Now you bet you guys also have games that are first person shooter or whatnot. You don't want to associate with those type of articles. There's a bit of a mismatch, and I think it's just hard to manage that. So they go with a broader approach and I get it, but I think it's just there needs to be more about understanding the context of certain articles. And it's like the word shooting can be anything, everything. Right?Damian Fowler (26:22):Yeah, I like that. I've been hearing more about a shift from brand safety to brand suitability, which brings in the concept of context. What's something unexpected you've learned from reader data or behavior recently?Ji Kim (26:39):So I wouldn't say it's recent, but it's something that's surprises me how the smallest change that I, from my perspective is like, is that really going to do anything? But at our scale, the numbers changed so drastically. Recently we were playing around with the video size because our outstream unit will float once the user are scrolling and the size of that unit. Obviously we want to give advertiser value, so we want to make it as big as possible. But then user experience wise, it could be very bothersome because as they're trying to read, there's a video playing. So we want to keep mindful of that. And we're constantly testing the size of that unit and we decreased by 10% and 10%. While it's significant, if you look at the actual size of the unit to the naked eye, you really wouldn't be able to tell what the difference is. But the CTR of that video unit changed drastically. It was cut in half, actually. And that's the thing is like, okay, users are really sensitive to these things. And to me it's not, maybe I'm looking at it too often, but that's always, that boggles my mind and it always catches me by surprise when I see the numbers is like, wow, I did not expect that. I did not expect users to behave this way.Damian Fowler (28:00):That's amazing. The details really matter.Ji Kim (28:02):Yeah, Big time. Damian Fowler (28:03):And that's it for this edition of The Current Podcast. We'll be back next week. The Current Podcast is produced by Molten Hart. A theme is by Love and Caliber, and our associate producer is Sydney Cairns. And remember,Ji Kim (28:21):I like to think of us as a publishing powerhouse. We started very small. Our motto is humble and hungry. We like to remind ourselves that it's always good to keep a humble mindset.Damian Fowler (28:34):I'm Damian, and we'll see you next time.

Jordi Baylina introduces ZisK zkVM. And Etherscan releases an address analytics tab. Read more: https://ethdaily.io/723 Disclaimer: Content is for informational purposes only, not endorsement or investment advice. The accuracy of information is not guaranteed.

Thank you to Polygon for supporting this show.

Shashank Sripada merges institutional rigor with systemic change. After managing $7B+ in assets and advising the White House, he co-founded Gaia to prove decentralized models can scale equitably. Gaia aims to empower anyone—from individual knowledge workers to domain experts—to build, launch, scale, and monetize their own AI agents. Why you should listen Gaia aims to empower anyone—from individual knowledge workers to domain experts—to build, launch, scale, and monetize their own AI agents. Each agent runs as a Gaia “node,” a lightweight, sandboxed runtime powered by technologies like WasmEdge, fine‑tuned open‑source LLMs, embedding models, vector databases, prompt management, a plugin system, and open APIs. This stack can be deployed anywhere (personal devices, cloud, edge), enabling agents that reflect the creator's own style, knowledge, values, and expertise. Unlike closed‑box SaaS solutions (e.g., GPT‑4), Gaia nodes enable deep customization via fine‑tuning, RAG‑enhanced prompts, schema‑enforced outputs, and domain‑specific knowledge embeddings. This reduces hallucinations, cuts costs, and maintains data privacy. Users can build agents that speak and think like them, tailored to specific domains—far beyond generic LLM capabilities—and can interconnect to ingest external tools, memory systems, or APIs seamlessly. Supporting links Stabull Finance Gaia Andy on Twitter  Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.   This video is brought to you in partnership with Stabull Finance https://stabull.finance, the #stablecoin #DEX on #Ethereum and #Polygon that allows a growing number of fiat-backed stablecoins to be swapped against each other, liquidity pools, and a liquidity mining program. Make your first swap at https://app.stabull.finance or add liquidity at https://app.stabull.finance/pools

Anime fan and Dread Central's Editor-in-Chief MaryBeth McAndrews pops in to educate Anna on two masterpieces of the genre: Ghost in the Shell (1995) and Perfect Blue (1997). Read MaryBeth's piece about how Perfect Blue predicted fan culture for Polygon. New episode every Friday.Follow us on Letterboxd to see what films we're covering.Produced and presented by Anna BogutskayaResearch Assistant: Frankie Wakefield***Music: "Neon Alley" by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio***The Final Girls are a UK-based film collective exploring horror film history through a feminine lens.→ Support us on Patreon for bonus content.→ Find out more about our projects here: thefinalgirls.co.uk→ Follow us on Twitter and Instagram.→ Read Feeding the Monster

Mounir Benchemled is the founder of Velora, an intent-based crosschain trading protocol that makes complex trading strategies simple and accessible for users.  Why you should listen Mounir's deep expertise in DEX aggregation and intent-based trading has positioned Velora as a leader in the DeFi space. As the platform evolves, Mounir is steering the next stage of growth by focusing on crosschain interoperability and agent-based execution, ensuring the best possible user experience with reduced gas costs, slippage, and revert protection.  Velora's core mission is to simplify access to DeFi by breaking down liquidity fragmentation—aggregating over 160 integrated protocols across Ethereum, BSC, Avalanche, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, zkEVM, and more. One of Velora's standout features is Delta, a trading layer that shields you from MEV (miner extractable value) issues and rids you of gas costs. Delta uses "Portikus Infrastructure" and a fleet of competing settlement agents to secure best‑execution swaps—without upfront gas fees. On top of swaps, Velora offers on‑chain RFQ (request‑for‑quotes) from vetted market makers, yield optimization tools, and a public API/SDK for advanced integrations—making it a go‑to for DeFi devs and institutional teams. Velora is carving out the middle‑layer of DeFi—powering fast, secure, cross‑chain trades with gasless UX and plug‑and‑play tools for developers and institutions. Supporting links Stabull Finance Velora Andy on Twitter  Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.    

Host Jennifer Sanasie breaks down the latest news in the crypto industry as U.S.-China tensions cool.Bitcoin briefly jumped above $110,000 this morning amid an agreement between the U.S. and China to lower tensions. Will the market rise once the two economic superpowers eventually reach a broader tariff deal? Plus, Polygon's Sandeep Nailwal is set to take over as the CEO of the Polygon Foundation amid strategic shakeup. CoinDesk's Jennifer Sanasie hosts “CoinDesk Daily.”-Ledn is the leading platform for Bitcoin-backed loans, offering a secure and transparent way to unlock liquidity without selling your Bitcoin. Ledn has issued over $9 billion in loans since 2018 and has never lost a single satoshi of client assets, earning a reputation as the name you can trust in the crypto space.Visit ledn.io to learn more. -This episode was hosted by Jennifer Sanasie. “CoinDesk Daily” is produced by Jennifer Sanasie and edited by Victor Chen.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Thank you to Polygon for supporting this show.

Oh, no, he's hot. On this week's episode of The One Piece Podcast we go through One Piece Chapter 1151 “I Get The Idea!!!” with Josh McKenzie (OPP contributor and storyboard artist) Kirsten Carey (vocalist and guitarist for Throwaway, writer at The Mary Sue, Polygon and many others) Mike Patten (storyboard artist, animation supervisor for “Reset”) and special guest Stephen Paul (translator for One Piece in Shonen Jump & Manga Plus)! We also have our Piece Together segment, where we take your questions, comments, and theories! SUBSCRIBE TO US ON PATREON! You can subscribe on Patreon and get access to ad-free episodes and our 800+ episode archive, our exclusive series 4'ced to Watch 4Kids with Steve & Alex, our full-length film OPPJapan, exclusive episodes with our special guests and a lot more. 00:00:00 Introduction 00:12:54 Manga Recap: Chapter 1151;01:24:34 Piece Together;02:14:21 To Be Continued…! NEWS & UPDATES Want to know when One Piece is going to end? So does our man in Japan and OPLA live action series advisor Greg Werner! Check out his column “The End of One Piece,” posted exclusively by the OPP! Our video recording of the OPP at City Winery is now LIVE for patrons! You can watch our previous show from April on YouTube here! The OPP is officially British Famous! Read what Zach had to tell the good people of England about One Piece as it lands on BBC iPlayer in “One Piece: From ‘niche within a niche' to global phenomenon” by Samuel Spencer! OPLA! is back for a whole new season! Check out interviews with the cast including Aidan Scott (Helmeppo), Alexander Maniatis (Kuro), Craig Fairbrass (Zeff) and Chioma Umeala (Nojiko)! Don't miss out, subscribe at patreon.com/onepiecepodcast to get the full One Piece Podcast experience!  We have an all new series about the history of 4Kids … as told by the people who were actually there. Check out 4Kids Flashback every Wednesday! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After 38 years of building homes in Vancouver, Polygon President & CEO Neil Chrystal knows a thing or two about market cycles. Spoiler alert: he's finally seeing signs of recovery in a downturn he believes has been even more severe than the infamous leaky condo crisis of the late 1990s. Neil sits down with Adam & Matt this week to share battle-tested insights on navigating Vancouver's challenging housing market and reveal the reputation-building strategy that's helped Polygon weather every storm from the 80s to today.From the new GST relief for first-time buyers to why foreign buyer bans are backfiring, this conversation cuts through the doom and gloom to reveal where smart money is moving. Neil breaks down why townhomes are selling while towers sit empty, and explains why now might actually be a generational opportunity to buy.Is it always darkest before the dawn? Why have investors completely disappeared when they're usually bottom-fishing by now? And what's the one factor that makes any real estate investment a winner in Neil's eyes? Don't miss this veteran builder's take on surviving Vancouver's toughest housing market in 25 years.

Thank you to Polygon for supporting this show.

Prysm celebrates eight years of development. Polygon PoS turns five. Privacy Pools reopens for deposits. And SharpLink Gaming plans to establish an ETH treasury. Read more: https://ethdaily.io/712 Disclaimer: Content is for informational purposes only, not endorsement or investment advice. The accuracy of information is not guaranteed.

Hosts Riki and Matthew welcome returning guest Jessica Plummer to dive deep into Marvel's Thunderbolts* and its bold attempt to explore mental illness within the superhero genre. The discussion examines whether the film succeeds in portraying depression authentically or falls into problematic tropes about sad white men needing rescue.The hosts debate whether the film's treatment of Bob/Sentry reinforces toxic masculinity tropes or genuinely explores community support for mental health struggles. Jessica argues that Yelena remains the true protagonist throughout, while Matthew initially worried the film prioritized Bob's emotional journey over everyone else's.How does the movie portray different types of depression across its ensemble cast? The conversation explores how each character—Yelena's open struggles, Bucky's careful masking, Alexi's self-medication—represents different manifestations of depression and coping mechanisms. The hosts examine whether the film successfully shows that depression isn't one-size-fits-all.Can superhero blockbusters meaningfully address serious mental health issues? The discussion weighs whether films with action sequences and quips can authentically explore topics like depression, or if the entertainment format undermines the message. They consider how Thunderbolts* compares to other MCU attempts at mental health representation.Does the film's "group hug" resolution feel authentic or overly simplistic? Drawing from a Polygon article by Tasha Robinson, the hosts examine whether the movie adequately addresses the shame and complexity of accepting help during mental health crises, or if it presents an unrealistic fantasy of easy healing.Other Topics CoveredThe significance of Yelena as the true protagonist versus Bob as a supporting characterHow the film's non-romantic dynamic between Yelena and Bob affects the narrativeComparison between comic book Sentry/Void and the movie adaptationThe role of community and connection in mental health recoveryVisual metaphors for depression (the hole/ladder analogy, elevator shaft scene)John Walker's portrayal of domestic depression and toxic masculinityThe impact of different casting choices on the film's themesHow Thunderbolts fits within broader MCU mental health representationThe creative team's background in depression-focused storytelling (The Bear, Beef)**************************************************************************This episode is a production of Superhero Ethics, a The Ethical Panda Podcast and part of the TruStory FM Entertainment Podcast Network. Check our our website to find out more about this and our sister podcast Star Wars Generations.We want to hear from you! You can keep up with our latest news, and send us feedback, questions, or comments via social media or email.Email: Matthew@TheEthicalPanda.comFacebook: TheEthicalPandaInstagram: TheEthicalPandaPodcastsTwitter: EthicalPanda77Or you can join jump into the Star Wars Generations and Superhero Ethics channels on the TruStory FM Discord.Want to get access to even more content while supporting the podcast? Become a member! For $5 a month, or $55 a year you get access to bonus episodes and bonus content at the end of most episodes. Sign up on the podcast's main page. You can even give membership as a gift!You can also support our podcasts through our sponsors:Purchase a lightsaber from Level Up Sabers run by friend of the podcast Neighborhood Master AlanUse Audible for audiobooks. Sign up for a one year membership or gift one through this link.Purchase any media discussed this week through our sponsored links.

OK, first thing's first: SPOILERS FOR CLAIR OBSCUR: EXPEDITION 33 FROM 1:13:38-1:20:14.Second thing's second, sorry for some of the audio inconsistencies this week. It's entirely Noah's fault and nobody else is responsible for it. All of that aside, we're playing some sick games this week. We do our best to tip toe around literally anything that could be considered a spoiler for 1000xResist and wade into the Persona 4 remake rumor mill. THINGS MENTIONED:EA shut down an entire subsidiary studio that was working on a Black Panther game (from IGN)From the Verge: Two former Polygon guides writers are starting their own siteIGN on the Persona 4 remake rumorsCommentary from No Escape VGTori's on bluesky: ⁠⁠⁠⁠toridp98⁠⁠⁠⁠Nathaniel's onlineNoah's onlineOur intro/outro music are by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠GEIST⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and our show art is by⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@tristemegistus⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. We curate your gaming news together and Noah, Tori and Nathaniel take turns producing the show. You can follow the show on Twitter ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@Press_StartPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, on tumblr at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠press-startpod.tumblr.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and on bluesky ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@press-startpod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Email us questions about 1000xResist, gaming recs and other stuff at heypressstart@gmail.com. We'd also appreciate if you left us reviews on your podcast app of choice! Good text reviews will be read out on the show.

Our necks are hurting from the whiplash of information regarding what tyres are actually fastest off-road. Ronan teases a fresh discussion he had about optimising one sponsored rider for Unbound and some surprising lessons that came from that. It's a topic that continues to fascinate, especially given some of the world's best cross-country mountain bikers have been racing Short Track on 50 mm gravel tyres.In addition to that, you'll hear Dave Rome, Alex Hunt, and Ronan McLaughlin explain why none of them are currently choosing to use 3D-printed saddles. There's a PSA for anyone with wireless shifting, and of course, there's new stuff to talk about, too.As usual, members also get our Ask a Wrench segment, which this week sees Dave Rome and pro race mechanic Brad Copeland answer a handful of questions, including: how keep 11-speed shifting running long-term, understanding bike handling, and best practises for travelling with new SRAM Full Mount derailleurs (Transmission and XPLR). Members can submit new questions here.Timestamps:5:15 - Corrections corner related to 55 mm road tyres8:40 - Corrections corner related to the Zipp 303 SW naming11:00 - So mountain bike tyres aren't always faster off-road?24:00 - DT Swiss joins the gravel suspension game29:30 - Why we don't choose 3D-printed saddles42:10 - A PSA to wireless shifting44:30 - Polygon's new Helios A road racer50:30 - Goodyear's new Connector gravel race range55:00 - HED's new gravel wheels58:30 - Ask a Wrench with Brad Copeland (member-only)59:40 - Keeping SRAM 11-speed going long-term1:05:30 - How to understand rear handling?1:09:00 - Travelling with SRAM T-Type/Full Mount derailleurs

Thank you to Polygon for supporting this show.

We're pleased to welcome former Polygon senior reporter Nicole Carpenter to Remap Radio this week, joining Patrick, Cado, and Janet as they talk through Polygon's surprising implosion. Elsewhere, we wonder if Marathon is cooked, bring back the classic Buying or Selling segment to consider using ChatGPT to plan a five-year-old's birthday party, and talk about a bunch of games, including Death Stranding, Hopshot, Despelote, Blue Prince, Roblox (??), and more. Oh, and in The Question Bucket, Patrick receives moral support for his wet shoe situation.Discussed: Nicole's Layoff Story 2:44, What's Your Professional Development Wish? 13:12, What's Next for Nicole and Freelancing 30:31, Bungie Accused of Stealing Art Assets from Independant Artist 53:28, Buying or Selling 1:09:28, Blue Prince 1:37:40, Hopshot! 1:42:39, Clair Obscure 1:54:16, Roblox 1:59:28, Shotgun CopMan 2:09:31, Death Stranding 2:10:12, Question Bucket 2:27:49See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this week's episode, Nathan and Luke are joined by Aftermath's newest regular contributor, former Polygon senior reporter Nicole Carpenter to discuss her tenure at the freshly gutted games media institution, as well as how she got into journalism in the first place. She also tells us about the time she got to speak to the voice of Barbie for a story, and she started speaking in character without even being asked. You love to hear it. Then we delve into the news of the week: First, the community around Google Maps-based location guessing game GeoGuessr protested the game's inclusion in the Saudi-backed Esports World Cup by blacking out most of the game's most popular maps… and it worked? Despite the prevailing mentality that corporate interests and oil money will overcome all, GeoGuessr's developers relented and pulled out of the event. We talk about the ways in which this situation was unique, but conclude that it can still serve as an inspiration to other gaming communities unnerved by the sudden presence of a sportswashing festival on their annual calendars. Then we move on to Grow A Garden, a Roblox game Nicole wrote about that has more concurrent players than anything on Steam. Why is it so popular? And what is Roblox offering young people that more traditional games don't? Lastly, we accept an offer from the King Of All Cosmos and transform Aftermath into a giant ball company.Credits- Hosts: Nathan Grayson, Luke Plunkett, & special guest Nicole Carpenter- Podcast Production & Ads: Multitude- Subscribe to Aftermath!About The ShowAftermath Hours is the flagship podcast of Aftermath, a worker-owned, subscription-based website covering video games, the internet, and everything that comes after from journalists who previously worked at Kotaku, Vice, and The Washington Post. Each week, games journalism veterans Luke Plunkett, Nathan Grayson, Chris Person, Riley MacLeod, and Gita Jackson – though not always all at once, because that's too many people for a podcast – break down video game news, Remember Some Games, and learn about Chris' frankly incredible number of special interests. Sometimes we even bring on guests from both inside and outside the video game industry! I don't know what else to tell you; it's a great time. Simply by reading this description, you're already wasting time that you could be spending listening to the show. Head to aftermath.site for more info. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Thank you to Polygon for supporting this show.

with @kimbatronic @amandatylerj @clairekartWelcome to web3 with a16z. Since our show covers both tech trends and company building, today's topic is all about marketing — including differences between marketing in crypto and traditional tech.The conversation shares a candid look at what works — and what doesn't — when it comes to building reputation and community, attracting developers, hiring teams and agencies, launching tokens, raising founder profiles, and more.Our experts are:... Amanda Tyler, who was most recently Head of Marketing at the Optimism Foundation (and was formerly at Polygon, Coinbase, and Google);... Claire Kart, Chief Marketing Officer at Aztec (who previously was at Risc Zero and SoFi);... in conversation with Kim Milosevich, CMO at a16z crypto (who was formerly VP of Comms at Coinbase, and who has spent decades in tech at a16z, Skype, Yahoo, and elsewhere).Timestamps(0:00) Introduction(1:41) The Role of Marketers(4:52) Tech Marketing vs. Crypto Marketing(6:34) Understanding the Core Audience(10:56) Marketing for Ethereum and Layer 2 Projects(16:09) The Role of Community Managers and Developer Relations(25:21) Token Launch Strategies(34:42) Building Founders' Profiles (Without Being Cringe)(38:53) How to Support Founders(40:55) When to Hire (43:05) Consultants vs. Agencies(46:08) Structuring a Marketing Team(48:27) Finding and Hiring Talent(50:36) Building an Editorial Content Operation(53:39) International Marketing Strategies(56:41) The Role of Events(1:01:48) Memes and Crypto Culture (1:04:57) ConclusionAs a reminder, none of the content should be taken as investment, business, legal, or tax advice; please see a16z.com/disclosures for more important information, including a link to a list of our investments.

This week we talk with Ben Bertoli (Polygon, Kotaku, IGN) about the current state of gaming journalism following the sale of Polygon and the layoff of the majority of their staff. With sites like Giant Bomb going independent, how feasible are smaller scale operations in the media space? We also cover all the Nintendo and gaming news and rumors such as Nintendo attending Gamescom, Nintendo's ability to brick your Switch 2, and much more. As always, we close with the games we've been playing. Listen to Super Switch Headz on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you enjoy podcasts. 0:00:00 Introduction 0:05:28 News and Rumors 0:33:41 Gaming Journalism 1:16:20 Games We're Playing Discord: https://discord.com/invite/CWbF4gb Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/switchheadz Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SuperSwitchHeadz/ Website: https://www.switchheadz.com/ Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@SwitchHeadzClips

On today's episode #216, Polygon is approaching irrelevance by degrees as its vision lacks angles congruent to the market, Giant Bomb is somehow resuscitated at the last moment, and some big content drops in the DOOM universe. Plus, Clair Obscur lives on in our hearts and minds, and Ben sends updates as he plays Elden Ring Nightreign.

Markets tread water while regulators turn the heat up: this week (10 – 16 May 2025) the Fed's draft stable-coin framework lands alongside fresh FCA proposals, the SEC punts once more on the ETH ETF, and Hong Kong issues its first retail-ready trading licences. On the tech front Polygon unveils AggLayer and Uniswap super-charges cross-chain swaps, while PayPal and Shopify push crypto checkout to tens of millions of shoppers. BTC grinds above $104 k; MATIC jumps 20 %. Get every headline you need in under 15 minutes with Dee Weekly.Stable-coins set to go mainstream (Deutsche Bank note) — https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/stablecoins-becoming-mainstream-dollar-gold-stable-genius-act-2025-5Stable-coin bills advance in Congress — https://www.debevoise.com/insights/publications/2025/05/stablecoin-bills-advance-in-congress-as-adminSEC delays spot-ETH ETF decision — https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2025/04/14/sec-delays-decisions-on-in-kind-redemptions-ether-etf-stakingUK FCA crypto discussion paper — https://www.skadden.com/insights/publications/2025/05/uk-fca-discussion-paper-proposesHong Kong first retail VASP licences — https://www.sfc.hk/en/Welcome-to-the-Fintech-Contact-Point/Virtual-assets/Virtual-asset-trading-platforms-operatorsNigeria drops criminal charges against Binance exec — https://www.reuters.com/technology/nigeria-binance-case-update-2025Polygon AggLayer breakout program — https://polygon.technology/blog/pol-value-accrual-post-2-introducing-the-agglayer-breakout-programUniswap permissionless bridging live — https://blog.uniswap.org/permissionless-bridging-is-now-liveBTC price history — https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/historical-data/ETH price rally analysis — https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/05/16/ether-bears-are-done-and-that-s-fueling-eth-price-surge-crypto-benchmark-issuer-saysMATIC price history — https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/wmatic/historical-data/PayPal 3.7 % APY & global checkout expansion — https://newsroom.paypal-corp.com/2025-04-23-Buy-Hold-Earn-Rewards-PayPal-USDShopify integrates Solana Pay — https://www.quicknode.com/guides/solana-development/solana-pay/shopifyLinks:HIO Discord: https://discord.gg/Mq6TUHv4Codex Discord: https://discord.gg/ChK3ew3AWaku Discord: https://discord.gg/UADwEA64Status Discord: https://discord.gg/cWTjmjNKLogos Discord: https://discord.gg/SrtQBha3Website: https://Thebitcoinpodcast.com

We're back from Boston, which means Janet is back, too! The absolutely wild resolution to the unrest at Giant Bomb kicks off the podcast, with Patrick, Rob, Janet, and Chia celebrating Giant Bomb's newfound independence, contrasting it with their own breakup with Vice, and more. We also chat about the Fallout TV show's second season premiering later this year, the developers behind Outer Wilds making a new game, and a bunch of actual games, including (of course) Clair Obscur, Shotgun Copman, Despelote, Bionic Bay, MechWarrior 5, and a few others.Discussed: Giant Bomb is Back and Worker Owned 1:04.374, Valnet trying to re-hire for Polygon 21:28, Fallout Season 3 Gets Announced before Season 2 is out 49:06, Balatro 1:12:06, Mechwarrior 5 1:14:06, Bionic Bay 1:22:54, Clair Obscur 1:31:26, Despelote 1:51:26, Shotgun Copman 1:58:44, The Question Bucket 2:06:52See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The gang tries to figure out why prices are going up, talk Polygon and Giant Bomb news, play Assassin's Creed Shadows and Oblivion Remastered, and so much more!

MinnMax's Ben Hanson is joined by the huge crew of Kelsey Lewin, Haley MacLean, Leo Vader, Jacob Geller, Jeff Marchiafava and returning champion Ana Diaz to talk about Grand Theft Auto VI's new trailer, Polygon, Giant Bomb, and the state of games media, indie publishing agreements, and good new games like Deep Rock Galactic Survivor and Revenge of the Savage Planet. Ana Diaz was previous a cohort at MinnMax, we're excited to have her jump on again here and there for content - in the same way Charles Harte does. Then we answer questions submitted on Patreon by the community and award the iam8bit question of the week! You can win a prize and help make the show better by supporting us on Patreon and submitting a question! https://www.patreon.com/minnmax. Now you can support MinnMax on YouTube directly, with MinnMax Memberships. For $10 on YouTube, you can unlock the equivalent to the Backstage Pass tier on Patreon including 140 hours of extended content. This includes The Pissy Zone post-GOTY debates for 2022, 2023, and 2024. Help tell a friend, please! youtube.com/minnmax/join Tune in this Friday at 7:30pm Central for MinnMax-A-Thon, where we'll randomly roll through highlights from MinnMax's 5.5 years of independence to coincide with the launch of MinnMax Memberships! https://youtube.com/live/BJZZxE7l-Fw?feature=share Watch and share the video version of this episode here - https://youtu.be/jTZPHsBKCDg Follow Ana Diaz on Bluesky here - https://bsky.app/profile/pokachee.bsky.social Reach out to Ana with career opportunities here - anadiazwrites@gmail.com Vox Media Union fundraising - https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-polygon-workers-and-the-vox-media-union?modal=donations&tab=all Learn more about Haley's indie game publishing agreement stats and infographics here - indiegamepublishing.com Help support MinnMax's supporters! https://www.iam8bit.com - 10% off with Promo Code: ITSGONNABEMAY https://us-store.msi.com/save - 5% on Intel Z890 and B860 motherboards at the MSI US store with the promo code: msipod Get Huel today with this exclusive offer for New Customers of 15% OFF + a FREE Gift with code MINNMAX at https://huel.com/minnmax (Minimum $75 purchase) To jump to a particular discussion, check out the timestamps below... 00:00:00 - Intro 00:02:36 - Launching MinnMax Memberships on YouTube! 00:07:42 - GTA VI 00:25:35 - https://us-store.msi.com/save 00:26:53 - Xbox price increases 00:36:07 - The collapse of Polygon and Giant Bomb 01:19:00 - Indie game publishing agreements insight 01:28:03 - https://huel.com/minnmax 01:30:14 - Revenge of the Savage Planet 01:40:00 - Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor 01:46:41 - Thanking iam8bit - https://www.iam8bit.com/ 01:48:34 - Community questions 02:40:35 - Get A Load Of This Ana's GALOT - https://www.whiskeyriff.com/2025/01/05/wisconsin-port-o-potty-ice-fishing-shelter-goes-viral-the-crappie-shack/ Hanson's GALOT - https://bit.ly/4kdxY0G Kelsey's GALOT - https://www.reddit.com/r/InfinityNikki/comments/1kcymf6/why_so_many_players_quit_infinity_nikki_since/ Haley's GALOT - https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/788167418857652234/1369809913349537822/ben.webp?ex=681d3665&is=681be4e5&hm=af9e7063c465f8fc4acfb8d915f8ebab126de0948b2d07c71aaefdfb99a01bc2&=&format=webp&width=288&height=263 Community GALOT - https://bsky.app/profile/pixelbreakdown.bsky.social/post/3loe3w5x4422b Disclosure - Games discussed on MinnMax content are most often provided for free by the publisher or developer. Support us on Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/minnmax Support MinnMax directly on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/minnmax/join Follow us on Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/minnmaxshow Subscribe to our YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/minnmax Subscribe to our solo stream channel - https://www.youtube.com/@minnmaxstreamarchives Catch up on the best of MinnMax - https://bit.ly/4gAc6eq Buy MinnMax merch here - https://minnmax.com/merch Follow us on Twitter - https://twitter.com/minnmaxshow Go behind the scenes on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/minnmaxshow minnmax minnmaxshow gameinformer This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

We attempt to grapple with the job losses at Polygon and Giant Bomb (and dig into some of our own time at GB) this week, before diving into the ARC Raiders tech test, the end of Lost Records, Vinny's deepening love of Hollow Knight, the increasing absurdity of Skin Deep, the GTA 6 delay and new trailer, increasing Xbox prices, Gears on PlayStation, and some housekeeping notes for the next few weeks of Nextlander (yes, Brad's going pro in Fortnite). Advertise on The Nextlander Podcast at Audioboom, or support us on Patreon! CHAPTERS (00:00:00) NOTE: Some timecodes may be inaccurate for versions other than the ad-free Patreon version due to dynamic ad insertions. Please use caution if skipping around to avoid spoilers. Thanks for listening. (00:00:10) Intro (00:02:07) Well, Brad got picked for jury duty. Officially! (00:07:15) The Giant Bomb and Polygon news (00:07:57) Polygon being sold and the massive staff cuts. (00:14:36) What is and was Giant Bomb and its survival over the years. (01:22:26) First Break (01:25:02) The video games (01:25:57) ARC Raiders  |  [PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S]  |  2025 (01:46:45) Revenge of the Savage Planet  |  [Xbox Series X|S, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5]  |  May 08, 2025 (01:55:05) Skin Deep  |  [PC (Microsoft Windows)]  |  Apr 30, 2025 (01:59:15) Clair Obscur: Expedition 33  |  [PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S]  |  Apr 24, 2025 (02:00:05) Hollow Knight  |  [Linux, PC (Microsoft Windows)]  |  Feb 24, 2017 (02:05:50) Lost Records: Bloom & Rage  |  [Xbox Series X|S, PC (Microsoft Windows), PlayStation 5]  |  Feb 18, 2025 (02:11:30) Fortnite: Chapter 6 - Season 3: Galactic Battle  |  [PC (Microsoft Windows)]  |  May 02, 2025 (02:25:05) Second Break (02:25:09) Grand Theft Auto VI has been delayed (02:36:13) The Xbox is about to get way more expensive (02:47:16) Gears of War: Reloaded is coming and to a PS5 at that! (02:51:11) Remember that Apple and Epic lawsuit? (02:56:45) Nextlander content updates (03:00:00) Wrapping up and thanks (03:00:20) Mysterious Benefactor Shoutouts (03:02:17) Speeding along justice for the podcast?! Never. (03:03:24) See ya!

Thank you to Raycon for sponsoring this video! Go to http://www.BuyRaycon.com/KitAndKrysta to get 15% off sitewide! *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Hello and welcome to episode 169 of the Kit & Krysta Podcast! Today we'll be predicting everything about the Nintendo Switch 2 launch. We'll be sharing what we think will be the big headlines, how the sales will go, what the Metacritic scores are for the launch games and if we think there will be any surprises at launch. We also have a massive news section where we'll be talking about the new Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer, the Xbox price increases and so much more. We wrap it all up with some great questions from our Patreon family. All this and much more is coming right up! 0:00 - What's going to happen on June 5?? 8:32 - Predicting the Nintendo Switch 2 launch 1:09:02 - Games we're playing 1:34:51 - News news news (GTA6 delay and new trailer, Xbox price increases, Polygon and Giant Bomb's uncertain future, Chrono Trigger remake coming?) 1:53:33 - Questions from our Patreon subscribers Patreon Shout-outs! - All Hail the Final Boss - Aaron Hash - Ben Eichorn, MaruMayhem, Eigenverse, KissMyFlapjack, Mike Chin, Roy Eschke, Switchingitup_, vgmlife, Link The Hero of Winds, Angela Bycroft and her pig Molly, Thomas O'Rourke, Kyle LeBoeuf, Roberto Nieves, Fredrik Ulf Konradsson, Andrew Youhas, Chilly, Simon, krashuri, Master Discord, Ash, Ajay Kudlass, Fortygig, Travis Torline, EchoLadair, That'sSoOLANELL, MSMPokegamer, Cameron, Rburns, Aigami, Kitt 10K Follow Us! https://www.patreon.com/kitandkrysta https://twitter.com/kitandkrysta https://www.tiktok.com/@kitandkrysta https://www.instagram.com/kitandkrysta/ http://www.facebook.com/kitandkrysta/ https://bsky.app/profile/kitandkrysta.bsky.social -Kit & Krysta

Download for Mobile | Podcast Preview | Full Timestamps Expédition 33's Endless Build Possibilities As Game News Crumbles, The Castle Reluctantly Soldiers On Are We Already In The Slowest Industry Crash? The Future of Devil May Cry: Remake or Sequel? Watch live: twitch.tv/castlesuperbeast Go to http://shopify.com/superbeast to sign up for your $1-per-month trial period. - Go to http://auraframes.com/ and use code SUPERBEAST to get $35-off plus free shipping on their best-selling Carver Mat frame. - Go to http://factormeals.com/castle50off and use code castle50off to get 50% off and free shipping on your first box.  - Click this link https://sponsr.is/bootdev_BLTZZ and use my code BLTZZ to get 25% off your first payment for boot.dev. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Director Guillaume Broche: "it would've taken one "25 years" to navigate all the bureaucracy in a AAA studio just to get started on the game." Polygon sold to GameRant owner Valne, tSome staffers have been laid off or will no longer be with the publication. Fandom Blows Up Giant Bomb Microsoft Raises the Price of All Xbox Series Consoles, Xbox Games Confirmed to Hit $80 This Holiday Silksong is set to be fully playable at a museum exhibit in Australia on September 18, meaning that's a good chance the game will release before that exhibit debuts. Grand Theft Auto VI Trailer 2 Gears of War: Reloaded announced for PS5, Xbox Series, and PC - Gematsu

This week! Changes in the gaming press, a GTAVI delay, Switch firmware, Earthion, Clair Obscur Expedition 33, Silent Hill 2, Dave the Diver, South of Midnight, and much, much more. Join us, won't you? https://youtube.com/live/vKVEAGB50QE Links of interest: Giant Bomb goes bust Polygon bought by Valnet Microsoft increases prices, games to be $80 US GTA6 release slips to 2026 Switch firmware released, virtual game cards and more Nintendo makes eShop changes to prevent eSlop Balatro a PS Plus game for May Arcade Archives 2 Ridge Racer coming to more platforms Earthion Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 South of Midnight Silent Hill 2 Dave the Diver Star Trek The Next Generation Cats Greg Sewart's Extra Life Page Player One Podcast Discord Greg Streams on Twitch Growing Up Gaming - The Sony PlayStation Add us in Apple Podcasts Check out Greg's web series Generation 16 - click here. And take a trip over to Phil's YouTube Channel to see some awesome retro game vids. Follow us on twitter at twitter.com/p1podcast. Thanks for listening! Don't forget to visit our new web site at www.playeronepodcast.com. Running time: 01:33:24

Wishlist Now!Empyreal Steam Page - https://nwzo.io/click/dzexr/ Empyreal PlayStation Store page - https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/concept/10012299 Empyreal Xbox Store Page - https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/empyreal/9nv4j14zzqqn Go to http://auraframes.com and use code KINDAFUNNY to get $35-off plus free shipping on their best-selling Carver Mat frame. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp — go to http://betterhelp.com/kindafunny to get 10% off your first month. Gears of War is coming to PlayStation, we might get Half Life 3 before GTA 6, and Polygon's new owner has some things to say. Thank you for the support! Run of Show - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 While the Xbox console brand continues to wane, Microsoft's wise pivot to third party publishing is already paying dividends. According to recent financial reports, Xbox is now PlayStation's single biggest publishing partner, dominating PSN's very own pre-order and pre-load charts on the backs of Forza Horizon 5, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and Doom: The Dark Ages, not to mention strong performance across its brands, from Activision Blizzard's Call of Duty to Mojang's Minecraft and beyond. It's weird, to be sure, but predictable, too: These one-time rivals are now intrinsically linked, with both sides benefiting mightily from this new normal. With Halo, Gears, Fable, and virtually everything else Xbox-related no doubt en route to PlayStation 5 as we move forward, how deep and fruitful can this new, unusual relationship become? Plus: Long-in-development China Hero Project darling Lost Soul Aside gets delayed, Borderlands 4 experiences the extremely rare move-up in release date, Electronic Arts lays off hundreds and cancels projects at Respawn, and more. Then: Listener inquiries! Is it high-time for Sony to explore asymmetrical sticks for its controllers? Does PC gaming represent an existential threat to the console space? Should Sony tap Chinese mega-studio Virtuos to revive its old IP? Are we willing to endorse the new term "remakester?"Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement.Timestamps: 0:00:00 - Intro  0:22:22 - Girl crying in the bathroom Part 3?  0:23:58 - Hi Jimi  0:24:35 - Sacred Wives  0:26:14 - Best man's speech gone wrong  0:38:04 - nerd slop  0:44:09 - Xbox is PlayStation's top publisher  1:07:11 - Lost Soul Aside delayed  1:13:25 - Borderlands 4 release date moved up  1:21:17 - EA and Respawn layoffs  1:35:38 - Video game sales numbers  1:39:18 - New PS+ essential games  1:49:36 - Split Fiction movie  1:53:23 - Until Dawn original writers not credited in the movie  1:59:07 - Polygon is done, Giant Bomb next likely  2:05:26 - What We've Been Playing  2:07:43 - Marathon  2:34:20 - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33  3:00:05 - Dualsense with asymmetric sticks  3:07:50 - Virtuos remakes  3:15:29 - Remakester  3:20:24 - Goofy games we liked  3:31:42 - PlayStation's future errors  3:39:27 - The best case scenario for the big three going forward   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jeff and Christian welcome Jessica Cogswell from Gamespot to the show this week to discuss tariff price increases on Xbox, the new court decision changing up the Apple iOS store, an actual release date for GTA 6 in 2026, layoffs and departures at Giant Bomb and Polygon, and more! The Playlist: Jessica: Expedition 33: Clair Obscur, Overwatch 2 Stadium mode Christian: Expedition 33: Clair Obscur Jeff: Towerborne Parting Gifts!

The rent is too damn high!Hey, it's rough out there. But as development costs climb, retail prices skyrocket, and the institutional knowledge of decades of journalism slips out from under us due to corporate greed, Kat, Nadia, and Eric are at least here to explain what this means for the future of RPGs!Tune in to live recordings of the show every Saturday morning at https://www.twitch.tv/bloodgodpod, subscribe for bonus episodes and discord access at https://www.patreon.com/bloodgodpod and celebrate our 10th Anniversary with new merch at https://shop.bloodgodpod.com Also in this episode: Gameification of Disney World Chrono Trigger remake - PSYCH! Fandom is the worst website in the world Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 impressions update! Final Fantasy Magic: The Gathering hype Timestamps: 05:50 - Main Topic - What to do about expensive video games 52:08 - Random Encounters 55:24 - Polygon and Giant Bomb's collapse 1:10:28 - Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 update 1:30:16 - Nadia's Nostalgia Nook Music Used in this Episode: Do Your Best - [Breath of Fire III] A Curious Tale - [Secret of Mana] Enjoyment Theme - [Sakura Wars 2] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The panel mourns the loss of two titans of video game journalism, considers the future of games reporting, and imagines a horse covered in human skin. Hosted by Alex Jaffe, with Frank Cifaldi, Ash Parrish, Brandon Sheffield. Edited by Esper Quinn, original music by Kurt Feldman. SHOW NOTES: Andor The Mandalorian DMC DeLorean Marcus Aurelius Mark Antony 1: Let us begin by mourning the losses of game journalism (02:42) Polygon sold to Valnet, editorial staff hit with layoffs Michael McWhertor Fandom Blows Up Giant Bomb Was the Media's Big “Pivot to Video” All Based on a Lie? 8-4 Shane Bettenhausen Jeremy Parish Tencent lays off nearly all of staff at its gaming site Fanbyte Kotaku The Verge Valnet Blues: How Online Porn Pioneer Hassan Youssef Built a Digital Media ‘Sweatshop' 1Up Digg Gamergate (harrassment campaign) Simon Carless GameDiscoverCo Substack Fortnite Roblox Stephen Totilo 2: DIDDY WATCH: What does it mean that Cranky and Rambi are in Donkey Kong Bananza? (24:58) Diddy Kong Donkey Kong Bananza Cranky Kong Rambi the Rhino The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) Scrooge McDuck Diddy Kong Racing Super Smash Brothers series Waluigi Shigeru Miyamoto 3: Brian David Gilbert asks, if your typical fashion had stat boosters attached to it, what would they be and why? (29:25) Summer Game Fest Sonic Mario 4: How do you convince people to buy horse armor in 2025? (39:18) The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Remastered Horse armor Limited Run Games The Elder Scrolls VI NFTs Fallout series 5: How would each of you specifically design a video game for the other two panelists? (44:01) Elena Monster Maker TurboGrafx-16 LIGHTNING ROUND: GameFAQ&As - ? (47:03) Recommendations and Outro (53:28): Brandon: Eine Kleine Beng-beng Musik by dis.placed, The Seventh Curse (1986), Promise Mascot Agency Ash: Aftermath, Remap, VGBees, support journalism Frank: Enjoy, support, and share smart media Jaffe: DC Action News This week's Insert Credit Show is brought to you by patrons like you. Thank you. Subscribe: RSS, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more!

The panel mourns the loss of two titans of video game journalism, considers the future of games reporting, and imagines a horse covered in human skin. Hosted by Alex Jaffe, with Frank Cifaldi, Ash Parrish, Brandon Sheffield. Edited by Esper Quinn, original music by Kurt Feldman. SHOW NOTES: Andor The Mandalorian DMC DeLorean Marcus Aurelius Mark Antony 1: Let us begin by mourning the losses of game journalism (02:42) Polygon sold to Valnet, editorial staff hit with layoffs Michael McWhertor Fandom Blows Up Giant Bomb Was the Media's Big “Pivot to Video” All Based on a Lie? 8-4 Shane Bettenhausen Jeremy Parish Tencent lays off nearly all of staff at its gaming site Fanbyte Kotaku The Verge Valnet Blues: How Online Porn Pioneer Hassan Youssef Built a Digital Media ‘Sweatshop' 1Up Digg Gamergate (harrassment campaign) Simon Carless GameDiscoverCo Substack Fortnite Roblox Stephen Totilo 2: DIDDY WATCH: What does it mean that Cranky and Rambi are in Donkey Kong Bananza? (24:58) Diddy Kong Donkey Kong Bananza Cranky Kong Rambi the Rhino The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) Scrooge McDuck Diddy Kong Racing Super Smash Brothers series Waluigi Shigeru Miyamoto 3: Brian David Gilbert asks, if your typical fashion had stat boosters attached to it, what would they be and why? (29:25) Summer Game Fest Sonic Mario 4: How do you convince people to buy horse armor in 2025? (39:18) The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - Remastered Horse armor Limited Run Games The Elder Scrolls VI NFTs Fallout series 5: How would each of you specifically design a video game for the other two panelists? (44:01) Elena Monster Maker TurboGrafx-16 LIGHTNING ROUND: GameFAQ&As - ? (47:03) Recommendations and Outro (53:28): Brandon: Eine Kleine Beng-beng Musik by dis.placed, The Seventh Curse (1986), Promise Mascot Agency Ash: Aftermath, Remap, VGBees, support journalism Frank: Enjoy, support, and share smart media Jaffe: DC Action News This week's Insert Credit Show is brought to you by patrons like you. Thank you. Subscribe: RSS, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more!

Well this week sucked, really, and we dig into a bit as we discuss Polygon and the impending crisis barreling toward the enthusiast media, how bad the GTA6 delay could be for the game industry, and other fun stuff. But we also talk baout Clair Obscure, Skin Deep, Thunderbolts*, and a fair bit more.  This week's music:  Skid Row - I Remember You

Ep 473 - It's a rough news week on multiple fronts, but we try to take some solace in flushing some pirates' heads down the toilet and going for another ride on Deacon's motorcycle. *Days Gone Remastered Provided by PlayStation Get the extended cut: https://www.patreon.com/posts/extended-skin-2-127974581 (0:00) - Intro (5:18) - Shout Out to Polygon and Giant Bomb (28:17) - Borderlands 4 State of Play (42:16) - Codemasters Says No Rally Games in Development (52:45) - Skin Deep Impressions (1:04:59) - Lunar Remaster Impressions (1:22:38) - A Word From Our Sponsors (1:24:37) - Days Gone Remastered Impressions (1:39:42) - Creepy Redneck Dinosaur Mansion 3 Impressions (1:50:17) - Top 10 Intentionally Funny Games (2:01:37) - Also This Week (2:14:11) - L&R: Next for Team Asobi (2:18:28) - L&R: Critique Shaping Discourse (2:26:17) - L&R Game: Who Said It? (2:35:57) - Bets (2:40:07) - Closing Dumb-Dumbs & Dragons can be found at dumbdumbdice.com or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Our thanks to Dumb-Dumbs & Dragons for their support. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Wishlist Now!Empyreal Steam Page - https://nwzo.io/click/dzexr/ Empyreal PlayStation Store page - https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/concept/10012299 Empyreal Xbox Store Page - https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/empyreal/9nv4j14zzqqn Go to http://auraframes.com and use code KINDAFUNNY to get $35-off plus free shipping on their best-selling Carver Mat frame. Thank you for the support! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The day after recording Remap Radio, a bunch of huge news broke, including the presumed deaths of beloved media outlets Polygon and Giant Bomb. They might continue to exist, but in what form? Plus, Xbox announced massive, sweeping, and unprecedented price hikes across hardware and software. Rob and Patrick hopped on to react in real-time and get really upset.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Since you were a child you have heard that it is important to wash your hands. But even if you do, you may not be doing it correctly and you may be missing some key spots. This episode begins by explaining some often overlooked details of washing your hands. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/hand-washing/art-20046253 There is a human need for fun. And there are a million ways to indulge yourself including amusement parks, board games, sports, toys, festivals, video games or whatever else you can think of. How these fun things came to be makes for a very interesting story. Here to tell it is Russ Frushtick who has written about games and technology for over a decade. Russ is co-founder of Vox Media's gaming site called Polygon (www.polygon.com) and he is author of The Book of Fun: An illustrated History of Having a Good Time (https://amzn.to/3H2nBdn). A lot has been learned in recent years about sleep – how getting enough of it is crucial and how lack of sleep has some significant negative consequences. Here to explain some important intel on sleep and why it is so important is neurologist Dr. Guy Leschziner, who is head of The Sleep Disorders Centre in London and author of the book, The Nocturnal Brain: Nightmares, Neuroscience and the Secret World of Sleep (https://amzn.to/2lSckr0). If you care to understand just how important sleep is for your health, you need to listen to this important discussion. If you don't like where you work, is it better to quit now or stay at least until you find another job? The answer seems to depend on just how much you hate your job. Listen as I reveal the negative consequences of staying at a job that you hate. They are probably worse than you imagined. https://news.osu.edu/lousy-jobs-hurt-your-health-by-the-time-youre-in-your-40s/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices